


look what you made me do

by bblobb



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Bickering, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Misunderstandings, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-01-05 11:07:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12188808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bblobb/pseuds/bblobb
Summary: the HP au nobody asked for





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Borrowed the Harry Potter world for this one. If there are any mistakes in that regard, I'm sorry! Also no beta, so I'm deeply sorry for all the horrendous grammar mistakes too,..

 Woohyun scowls and stabs his eggs with fork violently. They splash onto his sweater and he curses profoundly, making two girls from second year who are sitting nearby choke on their tea. He pulls out his wand and waves it absentmindedly, cleaning his clothes, never looking down at what he’s doing. He smashes the wand on the table and grabs his fork again with a tad too much aggression. 

“Just look at him,” Woohyun spits hatefully and points the fork towards the Slytherin table. “Look at him laughing at me.”

Dongwoo looks up from his toasts, brushing the bits of eggs that flew there thanks to Woohyun off his plate. He zooms in on the said Head Boy he knows Woohyun is talking about and lifts his eyebrows.

“He’s literally sitting with his back to us,” Dongwoo points out. “You have to get this out of your head. He’s not after you.”

“He made sure I got the detention,” Woohyun says. “Like, he made _super sure_ I’d be stuck there and for a week, no less!”

“To be fair, you _were_ out of the bed in the middle of the night,” Dongwoo says like the voice of reason he sometimes is. “And I don’t think he’s picking on you specifically. I’ve heard Sungyeol from Ravenclaw gets points taken away from him almost daily.”

They both spare a second to look to the Ravenclaw table where the said student is building some sort of a siege weapon with his wand to hurl bits of food towards the Hufflepuff table.

“That’s not comforting at all,” Woohyun concludes.

“He doesn’t hate you,” Dongwoo repeats and goes back to his breakfast, pulling out a Charms book to read in.

“I hate him,” Woohyun says and doesn’t even care he sounds like a petulant child. “I won’t let him treat me like this.”

“Whatever you say,” Dongwoo singsongs, flipping a page. “I heard he’s actually a decent guy.”

Woohyun scoffs and dismisses Dongwoo’s council altogether. He’s burning holes into the back of the Slytherin’s head when the guy turns around to greet some of his serpent-y friends, smiling up at a curly haired girl and a tall ginger guy and for a moment, he looks genuine and not like something huge is stuck up his butt. His eyes almost disappear as he laughs, his whole body moving in a little wave. Woohyun forgets to stab his eggs for a minute.

-

Woohyun is in his last year at Hogwarts, firmly going in the direction of becoming a professional Quidditch player. He’s the captain of the Gryffindor team as a seeker, holding a four years strike of winning the Quidditch cup. He’s happy with where he is; apart from Quidditch, he has pretty good grades too. He loves Hogwarts and especially as a kid from a muggle family, he’s putting an extra effort in everything he does here, also taking a few more optional classes. Even for Herbology, the class he finds mind-numbingly boring, he tries his best. He’s best with charms and has alternative routes for his career planned ahead. Overall, he’s a good student, he honestly thinks he is. He does his homework, doesn’t miss his deadlines, doesn’t start fights in the corridors and doesn’t talk back to the teachers. And sneaking around is something everybody does, is the thing. On the nights he goes out after hours, he usually bumps into more students than teachers or even ghosts. And he’s in his last year, for god’s sake, it’s not like he’s a twelve-year-old that needs an adult supervision for whatever he does. Being in detention for something like that is laughable.

It’s ridiculous that he’s the one the Head Boy is picking on, because in no way is he going around looking for trouble. He doesn’t know if it’s because he’s a Gryffindor, just because the guy doesn’t like him, because his parents are muggles or because he is bored. It’s not like Woohyun doesn’t know who _he_ is – Kim Sunggyu, a fellow seventh year, the Slytherin prodigy in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class who was offered a job at the Gringott’s in his fifth year.

Woohyun unfortunately has to give him some credit because they have had classes together since the first year and even if it maybe wasn’t noticeable right at the beginning, Sunggyu has shown incredible talent over the years. Sunggyu uses magic with no words like a pro, shaming even the teachers, he’s exceptionally good with defensive magic and Woohyun would bet anything he’d be great at offense too, if there was room for that in their classes. Woohyun also knows Sunggyu comes from a carefully kept pure bloodline of wizards that has moved to England almost six generations ago. He has no idea why he knows that but it is almost like a common knowledge, that Sunggyu’s family is a fancy one. His sister graduated three years ago and she was also the Head Girl. There is no doubt Sunggyu won’t have a problem finding a well-paid job after graduation, even if it doesn’t seem like he wants to follow up in the family business of potion making, which most people seem to be expecting of him.

The rivalry between the Hogwarts houses has somewhat subdued after the fall of the Dark Lord more than twenty years ago, but healthy competition is still encouraged. Woohyun grew up aside all the prejudice, had no idea magic world existed until he was eleven and petty grievances between the houses were the least of his concerns after coming here. He’s spent more than six years in this castle though and understandably, he would pick the Slytherins as his least favourite classmates. At the same time, he wouldn’t say he hates them. Sunggyu, though, seems to be a whole different story.

They’ve never really paid that much attention to each other; sure, Woohyun knew who he was before he bumped into him in the corridor last week and he’s sure Sunggyu knew him. They never really talked, save for a few unimportant interactions during one class or another. Woohyun never felt like the Slytherin prefect, now the Head Boy, was specifically set to take him down, most of the time he doesn’t seem interested in anyone at all.

Woohyun has seen Sunggyu helping out a few Gryffindor first years after they got lost in the staircase the other day so he’s almost completely sure it’s not about houses anyway. Maybe it really is something about Woohyun specifically that Sunggyu cannot stand; Woohyun is a fairly popular guy, in his house at least, but that would apply to all the Quidditch players. The pure blood nonsense is still a possibility and that makes Woohyun a little sick. Seven years in the world of magic and that’s the one thing he refuses to understand. Aggressive trees, missing stairs in the staircase, talking paintings, ghosts and dragons, all of that he’s grown used to. But not this bullshit kind of discrimination.

Woohyun literally doesn’t have time for an archenemy. That’s the biggest problem here. He has barely anytime to sleep, with the trainings and the final exams coming up, there is no way he can handle a spiteful Head Boy on his tail too.

 

He frowns on his way to a late afternoon training and looks out of the windows he’s passing. Heavy clouds are nearing the castle, promising a storm. Peachy.  It’s that time of the year already again; the three days of sunny, beautiful autumn are gone and now is the time for the good old fashioned horrible _English_ autumn.

He’s almost out of the castle, his broomstick comfortably thrown over his shoulder, when he hears footsteps behind himself and sees just the guy who’s been on his mind the whole day.  

“I’ve been looking for you,” Sunggyu says calmly, striding the last few steps to stand in front of Woohyun. “Your detention starts this evening. The library, at eight.”

“Hm,” Woohyun hums. He doesn’t want to start a fight but he kind of _really wants_ _to_ at the same time. “Thanks a lot for that.”

Sunggyu narrows his eyes a fraction. “It’s your own fault, you know that, right?”

“Sure,” Woohyun agrees easily. “Going to the library because I left my bag behind five minutes past curfew… I’m glad I got a week of detention for _that_. I live for detention and chaos.”

“I don’t care why you were there,” Sunggyu says simply but his voice takes a faintly sharper tone.

“Of course you don’t,” Woohyun turns towards the gate. “I have a training to attend, if you don’t mind.”

Sunggyu doesn’t answer but he scoffs a bit and turns on his heel to leave.

Woohyun regrets only a little bit that he didn’t get to dramatically leave first.

-

He’s soaked wet and shaking with cold when they’re finally done with the training. The storm has come halfway through and the whole team looks like they’ve been swimming in the lake instead of flying at the Quidditch field. No one wanted to stop though, even though Woohyun offered it. They all seem to be really invested in him joining the national team after graduation and Woohyun does a bad job at hiding how much he’s grateful and touched. They all pet his back and he promises them butterbeer in Hogsmeade next week before heading to the castle, leaving him behind.

He’s in no hurry. He warms himself up in the shower and by then he’s running late for the damn detention and he couldn’t care less.

The corridors are almost empty; nobody feels like roaming around when autumn is already edging on winter, the castle gets cold and the days-lasting storms come around. Woohyun spares a fleeting thought for how cosy and warm the common room is by now and walks in the other direction to the library instead.

“Don’t argue with me,” he hears Sunggyu’s voice from behind the door before he even enters and his nose wrinkles. “I don’t care.”

“I’m not arguing,” another voice answers and when Woohyun pushes the door open, he notices the Ravenclaw student Dongwoo pointed out in the morning during the breakfast. He’s sitting behind one of the tables, head resting on his folded arms and a small wall of books in front of him. The library must be empty, because they’re definitely not using their inside voices.

“Oh, look who decided to show up,” Sunggyu gasps dramatically and then he wordlessly points to the table next to the Ravenclaw – Sungyeol, if Woohyun remembers correctly.

“The training ran late,” Woohyun offers but doesn’t apologise. He didn’t know Sunggyu would be the one to watch over them and Woohyun wonders how much free time the Head Boy has, to be handing out detentions and then taking care of them as well. Definitely much more than Woohyun.

“Well that explains everything,” Sunggyu mumbles almost just to himself, flipping through a few more books and adding them to the pile in front of them. “The Quidditch star had a training.”

Woohyun frowns slightly, a little bit offended. He tries not to use Quidditch as an excuse for anything, not if he can help it, but considering he has a potential professional career ahead of himself, he would think in his case it’s acceptable. Not that he would expect someone like Sunggyu to understand.

“I need you to go through these books, they’re some of the oldest in this library and they will need a professional to look at them,” Sunggyu says. “Your task will be to check for unreadable ink, torn pages, written in notes, stuff like that. Write down the name of the book and what should be done with it.”

They each get a roll of parchment and Woohyun doesn’t ask anymore questions.

“This seems like a very unnecessary kind of job,” Sungyeol says though, ignoring the parchment altogether. “This seems like something the librarian should be looking after constantly.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Sunggyu says mock sweetly and goes over to another table with more books on it. “These haven’t been opened in years, be careful with them.”

Woohyun takes the first book from the pile but Sungyeol just props himself to sit straight and narrows his eyes at Sunggyu.

“Why are you in such a bad mood?” He asks suspiciously and the casual tone gives away just how much time – probably in detention – the two have already spent together.

Sunggyu doesn’t deign that with a response and twirls his wand between his fingers, looking into a long scroll in front of him. He swings the wand lightly and more books come flying towards him from somewhere in the library. Woohyun frowns, eyes fixed on his fingers for a few long seconds. Fascinated.

“This is unusual, even for you,” Sungyeol says and his voice in the silence of the library makes Woohyun snap out of it.

Sunggyu sighs and looks over at them.

“Slacking off won’t do you any good in this case, Sungyeol,” Sunggyu points out. “These have to be done tonight.”

A few more books come flying in the next second, as if to prove his point, and then he finally puts the scroll away. It’s not really a difficult job to do and Woohyun is only glad it’s not cauldron scrubbing or something that would get him dirty or more physically exhausted than he already is.

“Come on, man,” he says and nudges Sungyeol lightly with his elbow. “I don’t want to stay here till midnight. Especially not with him.”

Sunggyu smiles at him coldly. All Woohyun can see are bared teeth.

“We can go over why you’re here again, if you’d like, Nam,” he says simply. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if arguing earned you a few extra detention days.”

Sungyeol’s face transforms like he just got the best birthday present and he starts turning his head from one to another as if he was watching a tennis match.

“I think that’s called abuse of power,” Woohyun says thoughtfully, putting the book he previously picked up back down. “I also think that kind of behaviour says a lot about how big, or more like _small_ , someone’s _confidence_ is.”

Sunggyu knows more than well what he means by that, especially when Woohyun’s eyes drop to his crotch with a malicious smirk.

“I see,” he nods slightly. “Should I expect a comment about my mother next?”

Woohyun hates him so much.

“My god,” Sungyeol gasps softly. “This is going to be so much fun.”

“You’re not here to have fun,” Sunggyu frowns at him and picks up his wand again, turning his back to them. He completely dismisses Woohyun and there’s probably nothing worse he could have done.

Woohyun watches him for a few more moments, trying to kill him with his eyes. It doesn’t work and Sunggyu fluidly moves around his wand, his own schoolwork spreading out easily in front of him. He waves his wand again and his book opens where he left off, the ink opens itself slowly and Woohyun is almost fascinated. Almost.

 

The detention takes forever and Woohyun, who started the detention pissed off, is now more than angry and slowly panicking. It’s taking longer than he thought, because Sungyeol obviously hates him too and doesn’t really try to get anything done. Woohyun has loads of homework and additional research he wanted to do and a week of this will leave him seriously behind. The Quidditch trainings are more frequent than ever before and those are the last things he would like to miss or half ass, so this will all go at the expanse of his sleep time.

He does half of Sungyeol’s books to speed things up and ignores Sunggyu’s lifted eyebrows. He’s the first one out of the library when they’re done, not really saying his goodbye to either of the two, and hurries back to the common room and off to start on some of his homework.

-

Woohyun gets barely any sleep and during the breakfast, Dongwoo offers him a potion of deep green colour to perk him up without words. He only frowns a bit at the circles under Woohyun’s eyes that don’t really disappear even though Woohyun himself feels much better immediately. He goes through his day as usual, only remembering there won’t be a free evening this time around either when he’s done with classes. He hastily eats his dinner and heads to the library early, hoping to get some of his homework done before the detention. It’s a rare evening with no Quidditch training; the weather has not improved and even though throughout the day the sky was only looking grim, now the sounds of thunder vibrate throughout the castle again. Woohyun decided to put his foot down and give his teammates a free evening, because two of his chasers seem like they could go down with a flu any second and that would be the last nail in the coffin.

The library isn’t exactly the most welcoming place in the whole castle but Woohyun settles next to a window on a table all by himself and with a few magic tricks he has learnt over the years gets the air flowing around him to keep himself warm and cosy. The library is pleasantly silent and calm; there aren’t many of the younger students who would be already doing their schoolwork, not really hitting _that_ phase until the Christmas holidays come around. And more than enough of those, who are like Woohyun already old enough to feel the real pressure of school, prefer the cosiness of their respective common rooms. Woohyun does too, he thinks bitterly.

As a way of procrastinating, he enchants a couple of crumpled up balls of parchment, messed up drafts of his essay for Defence Against the Dark Arts class, and they levitate above the table like planets, floating around the biggest one. He can’t really concentrate but manages to get at least some ideas out, scribbling it down to go back to it later and decides to do his Charms homework instead, that one thankfully flowing nicely.

He doesn’t pay attention to the students coming in and out of the library and even less to the old librarian, who gives his floating paper planets a nasty look but shuffles away without saying anything anyway. It’s already dark outside, the rain is steadily drumming against the windows and Woohyun looks around a few times, feeling seriously like in the middle ages. It’s actually quite lovely.

A small smile tugs at his lips and he goes back to the book he’s been reading. He took the opportunity of actually being in the library and pulled out something more advance to read from the restricted section, scribbling down a few interesting points he can make in his essay.

“Good to see you’re in good spirits,” a voice interrupts him and he almost jumps out of his skin with surprise and he tears up his parchment a bit. There has been dead silence up till now except for the sounds of writing and pages being turned a few aisles down.

He doesn’t look up, he knows the voice, and instead, he looks around for his wand so he can save his work. Woohyun hears a put-upon sigh and the unmistakable swish of a wand and his paper mends itself, along with a spelling mistake he’s done in his second paragraph.

Woohyun finally looks up at Sunggyu, scowling.

“No good spirits then?” The Slytherin asks with a smirk.

Woohyun, here and there, has these moments when he thinks Dongwoo could be right and he’s only imagining Sunggyu having something specifically against him. When he smiles kindly at some of his friends, when he talks to the teachers, when he’s doing literally _anything_ that doesn’t involve Woohyun. And then moments like these, when he’s acting like a huge prick, come along and he has to give his own intuition some credit. This asshole clearly is after him.

“I’m working here, if you haven’t noticed,” Woohyun snaps back and looks at his watch. “I still have at least forty minutes so just leave me alone.”

Sunggyu does the exact opposite and sits down across the table, looking at him with amusement.

“Go somewhere else,” Woohyun ads and frowns some more.

He hates the fact that even such small actions upset him so much. He usually doesn’t get angry quickly, he is usually patient, but Sunggyu makes him _want to_ act like a little child.

“I like it here,” Sunggyu says simply and Woohyun bitterly thinks that he’s definitely not the only kid here.

Woohyun doesn’t deign that with an answer and looks back into the book instead. He knows he won’t be able to concentrate now that Sunggyu is there and very obviously is there not to let him concentrate too.

After a few long moments, Woohyun sighs and puts down his pen, resting his head on his hand. He looks at Sunggyu who has a victorious sort of smirk on his face.

“I wonder,” Woohyun starts slowly. “What exactly makes you such an asshole? Is there really something physically stuck up your ass? Is there a class about assholery only the Slytherins get to take?”

Sunggyu’s smile only widens. It makes him look strangely predatory and Woohyun feels all off balance.

“I don’t think I should tolerate that kind of language,” Sunggyu says instead of answering. “There are young students around.”

Woohyun looks around – they’re completely alone.

“Are you kidding me?” Woohyun barks. “You can’t be serious. I thought the Head Boy is supposed to be better than this.”

“Well if you start crying about it now, I will probably have to comfort you, _as the Head Boy_ ,” Sunggyu nods slowly and there’s the challenge right in his voice. “What you gonna do about it?”

-

Woohyun comes back to the common room fuming.

“Oh oh,” Dongwoo looks at him and offers him the chocolate frog he was about to eat himself. “It didn’t go well? You weren’t so pissed off yesterday!”

“No,” Woohyun barks and he sits down at the table Dongwoo has been occupying. He lets his head fall into his hands and he groans loudly. “He admitted it! He hates me and wants to make my life a living hell and he just simply admitted it. He doesn’t even think it’s worth trying to conceal it!”

“I find that hard to believe,” Dongwoo frowns a bit to himself. “I talked to him before the Care of Magical Creatures class today and he was really nice to me.”

“Well _for some reason_ , that’s not helping _me_ in the least,” Woohyun groans. “I’m telling you, he said it. He used the actual words! He wants me dead.”

Dongwoo gives him a sceptical look. “Now you’re overreacting.”

“Maybe,” Woohyun sighs. “But he really did say he hates my guts. Called me a conceited douchebag.”

Dongwoo looks at him pityingly. “He just doesn’t know you.”

Woohyun gives him an incredulous look. “And that gives him the right to treat me like trash? I don’t think so.”

There really isn’t anything Dongwoo could say that would make Woohyun feel any better about this. And there’s even less Woohyun can do about this and he hates to lose.

“I just have to live through this week,” Woohyun grits through his teeth. “Just this week and then everything will go back to normal, when we ignored each other and all was well.”

Famous last words.

-

It’s Friday, finally. Last day of detention, last few hours with Sungyeol’s constant babble, last few hours of never ending arguments with Sunggyu about nothing. He’s learnt his lesson and doesn’t go to the library early before the detention and just does his homework in the common room. There is a bit of ruckus with the weekend coming up and the scheduled trip to Hogsmeade, but he manages to get one of the essays he’s been working on done.

When he arrives in the library, it’s not only Sungyeol there but another guy as well. Woohyun has seen him around but never really talked to him; there is blue on his robes – another Ravenclaw.

“I hate you, Sungyeol,” he’s just saying when he approaches them. “I hate you with passion.”

“Pay attention, Myungsoo, you’re slipping,” Sungyeol gasps dramatically. “You meant to say you love me.”

The other guy rolls his eyes and groans before finally noticing Woohyun.

“Oh hey,” he says and twitches a bit. “I’m Myungsoo.”

“Woohyun,” he offers and the guy smiles at him slightly.

“I know,” he says cheekily and elbows Sungyeol, probably only for the heck of it. “I’m cheering for the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year.”

“What, are you serious?” Woohyun laughs and Myungsoo snickers.

“Not really, but I like your style, man,” Myungsoo says simply.

“We are all very glad the Quidditch star can be here with us today, indeed,” Sunggyu says, coming in through the doors.

The smile disappears from Woohyun’s face immediately. “My ray of sunshine.”

Sunggyu smiles at him coldly and points to a chair. Woohyun very pointedly sits on a different one.

 

It goes even slower than usually, because Sungyeol distracts Myungsoo and vice versa and they get nothing done. Their bickering also doesn’t let Woohyun concentrate at all and despite himself, he has to listen and laugh along with them.

“Did it explode?” Myungsoo asks, his face stricken with actual tears.

“No,” Sungyeol says but by his tone it’s more than obvious that he’s lying.

Even Sunggyu snorts and shakes his head from where he’s writing something long for his Arithmancy class.

“I can’t believe you, seriously,” Woohyun heaves and tries to concentrate on the book in front of him.

“What,” Sungyeol shifts in his seat a bit. “I’m good at that actually.”

A few moments of silence fall over them and it’s surprisingly comfortable. A few books float around them and Myungsoo watches them dreamily, not doing anything. For once, Woohyun doesn’t even mind.

They get back to work and either of them speaks up here and there, just little comments about nothing special; even Sunggyu joins in.

“And what do you even want to do after Hogwarts?” Woohyun asks, looking at Sungyeol with raised eyebrows. “You look like the type of guy who could make anything into a profession.”

“Oh stop it you,” Sungyeol mock blushes. “I’m not definitely decided, I’m still keeping my options opened. I know I don’t want an office job. I would like to follow my parents’ path most probably.”

“What do your parents do?” Woohyun asks.

“Oh, they’re doctors, both of them,” he says. “My mom is a neurosurgeon and my dad a paediatrician.”

Woohyun’s jaw drops a bit and he looks up. “Doctors as in, muggles?”

“Yeah,” Sungyeol snorts, laughing. “ _You_ should know what a doctor is.”

“I do. I just would have never guessed you weren’t born to this,” he makes a motion with his hand that he hopes means magic.

“As a matter of fact, I wasn’t,” Sungyeol shrugs. “I have always wanted to be a doctor like them but there is no way I would go to med school now. I don’t regret that though, I actually like the fact I can do medicine this way. I want to combine the muggle point of view and the magical one.”

That is surprisingly mature and now when Woohyun looks at Sungyeol, he can see past the childish behaviour and see a grown-up man behind it all. And then an idea occurs to him and the smile slips off his face. He turns to look at Sunggyu who has a small smile on his face, one that Woohyun has his own explanation for.

“Oh,” Woohyun says dumbly and the Head Boy’s mouth snaps shut and he looks at him, scowling immediately when he notices he’s being watched. “I’m beginning to see a pattern here.”

He can feel both Myungsoo and Sungyeol now looking back at him and he shrugs, leaning back in his chair.

“What do you mean by that?” Sunggyu snaps at him and his cheeks redden a bit. It’s uncharacteristic for him to be reacting to Woohyun this much and it just raises the suspicion more.

“Nothing,” Woohyun says pointedly and then looks back to Sungyeol. “My parents are also muggles. My mom is a teacher and dad is an architect.”

“Wait,” Sunggyu raises his voice to be heard over whatever Sungyeol would reply. “What did you mean by that?”

Woohyun only raises an eyebrow and for the first time, he really does feel like he hates Sunggyu. This is a solid reason, no matter how cute Sunggyu looks when he’s flushed and frustrated, Woohyun feels not a bit of sympathy towards him now.

“I don’t know,” Woohyun says obnoxiously. “Seems like only _certain_ people qualify for your detentions.”

“Excuse me?” Sunggyu almost stands up in alarm. “People who break rules qualify for my detentions.”

“Whatever you say,” Woohyun snaps.

“Woohyun, I don’t think – “ Myungsoo starts to say but cuts himself off when Woohyun turns to stare at him.

What he’s indirectly accusing Sunggyu of is a lot but in the moment, it seems like the only explanation and Woohyun _hates_ what the explanation is.

“I would – “

“I don’t want to hear it,” Woohyun snaps at Sunggyu when he tries to speak. “We’re done here, aren’t we?”

They’re really not. There are still books in front of both Sungyeol and Myungsoo but he stands up anyway. He looks at Sunggyu one last time, just for a split of second, to dare him – to say something and stop him.

He doesn't and Woohyun walks out of the library, slamming the door behind himself.


	2. Chapter 2

The rain gets icy very fast, the days shorten and it all seems to reflect Woohyun’s mood perfectly. The detention is done and even though he has an awesome Saturday with his Quidditch team in Hogsmeade, come Sunday he’s in a sour mood again. There’s a lot on his plate at the moment and the bitter thoughts about being targeted because of his muggle family makes him feel like he doesn’t belong. He would never admit to anyone that it’s affecting him quite as much but Sunggyu is a prime example of a successful pure blood and it grinds away on Woohyun’s nerves even more because of it.

He notices the Slytherin’s eyes follow him around during the breakfast on Monday and it doesn’t improve his mood in the least. Before the detention Sunggyu didn’t look his way twice and Woohyun was okay with that. His mood is sour until both Sungyeol and Myungsoo greet him in the Great Hall after breakfast and he introduces them to Dongwoo, who likes them immediately. They start joining them for dinner here and there since then.

A few weeks pass, autumn blows over and on a Saturday morning in the middle of December, Woohyun wakes up to snow fluttering behind the windows. The castle looks like something out of a fairy-tale when the snow falls and he doesn’t even mind the teeth clattering cold that comes with it.

He realises it’s still way too early to be awake on a weekend day but he gives up on sleep after a few moments of rolling around and listening to Dongwoo’s – quite horrid – snoring. He slips out of his bed and quickly pulls on some clothes; he doesn’t even know what he’s going to do so early but he can snatch a good spot in the common room for a day of school work that he has planned ahead anyway.

He makes his way down for breakfast, scratching at his messed-up hair, not even bothering to comb it. He knows that some of the Gryffindors regularly wake up earlier than he and Dongwoo usually do and he joins them in front of the common room. He listens to their little chit chat about the upcoming Quidditch match against Ravenclaw on the way down, smiling to himself.

“We have our best man right here, though,” one of them says and throws a smile over his shoulder to Woohyun. “We can count on you, right?”

“The Ravenclaws do have a good team this year, though,” Woohyun yawns, just to spite them. “Not sure how it will turn out, Josh has a runny nose too.”

They all look scandalised and a few of them stop walking in disbelief. It’s quite hilarious; the Ravenclaws haven’t had half decent team in two years and this year it’s no different.

“But you’re going to win, right?” A guy who must be only in his second year squeaks, eyes wide.

“Sure we are,” Woohyun laughs and walks ahead.

 

The Great Hall is almost empty, most of the plates still clean and waiting for someone to sit in front of them. There is no one at all at the teachers’ table and there’s comfortable peace. A few students are at each table, voices quiet.

Woohyun sits down and the group that he has left behind follow him, gathering around him. The young boy from earlier sits right across from him, huge eyes blinking expectantly.

“So I would like to try out for the Quidditch team,” he says. “I’m Tom by the way.”

“You missed the try outs, by approximately three months,” Woohyun laughs at him. “Woohyun.”

“I know who you are!” The boy squeaks. “And I know I missed them. But maybe you have some pointers for next year, when the seeker’s position is free again?”

“Well I don’t know who the next captain will be,” Woohyun says and then takes a pity on him. “But you can come to the training tomorrow and watch – that works just fine. A seeker, huh?”

The boy is so excited and talks nonstop, enough so that Woohyun can comfortably eat and just nod along. He doesn’t really mind talking to the guy, it’s nice to see interest from the younger students. Everyone in Hogwarts loves Quidditch; most just prefer watching and even though they dream of trying out for the team, they never do. Woohyun himself remembers being terrified, especially when he knew literally nothing about the history of Quidditch or about the famous teams. He only knew that in his first year, the flying lessons were his favourite and that compared to his classmates, he was somehow much better at it than them. He knew Quidditch was a big deal but didn’t realise just how big until later. He certainly didn’t know that getting the position of the team’s seeker would be life changing for him.

An elbow nudges him in the ribs gently out of nowhere and he lifts his head to scowl at whoever is poking him when he notices _why_. Sunggyu himself floats gracefully over to the Gryffindor table, eyes set firmly on Woohyun, who bristles immediately. His appearance seems to catch attention of the few Gryffindor students already at breakfast and they just stare.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Sunggyu asks when he stops in front of Woohyun.

“I don’t think so,” Woohyun snaps and he feels the tension around him raising; the kid who nudged him earlier shifts uncomfortably.

“Please?” Sunggyu says and Woohyun’s eyes narrow with suspicion. What is this supposed to be?

Woohyun realises that whatever it is, he doesn’t really want to make a hissy scene in front of the other students; and everyone who’s in the Great Hall seems to be paying attention and watching the exchange with better or worse concealed curiosity. After a few seconds he stands up with a frown and follows Sunggyu out of the Great Hall away from the prying eyes and ears of the other students.

Sunggyu leads him in the direction of the Gryffindor common room and makes a turn into an empty classroom along the way. Woohyun’s mind is in overdrive in the meantime, trying to think of a single reason for what is happening. It’s been weeks since the last time they spoke and the sudden need for a private talk is intriguing to say the least.

“Just tell me what it is, Kim,” Woohyun says finally when Sunggyu doesn’t speak up first. “I don’t think going to the breakfast early counts as an offence. Or does it?”

“Stop acting like a child,” Sunggyu snaps but it lacks its usual heat. “Look, I’ve been beating myself over this… _thing_. What you said the last day of detention.”

Woohyun’s eyebrows go up and he crosses his arms over his chest. He doesn’t say anything but he feels the dislike for the guy increasing. And then Sunggyu finally looks at him, really looks at him. If Woohyun was calm enough to pay attention, he would have noticed how distressed Sunggyu looked in that moment.

“I don’t want you to think I’m targeting you because of your – because you are not – because of some pure blood nonsense,” Sunggyu finally gets out and he flushes slightly, pink dusting his cheeks.

“Smooth,” Woohyun says coldly.

“Why would you even think that?” Sunggyu demands.

“Seriously?” Woohyun scoffs. “Apart from the convenient coincidence of both my and Sungyeol’s parents being muggles?”

“Myungsoo’s parents are wizards,” Sunggyu says and then looks like he regrets mentioning it. “But that’s beside the point! Sungyeol is a notorious troublemaker, he makes trouble even in detention.”

“And what about me then, huh?” Woohyun asks sharply and takes a step towards Sunggyu. “I have literally no time to be making any trouble and what you gave me a week of detention for wouldn’t earn me a harsh tone from any other teacher. I don’t hide the fact my parents are muggles, I’m proud of them!”

Sunggyu reddens even more. “I never said – “

“I don’t care what your bullshit explanation is,” Woohyun barks. “I don’t care what you said or didn’t, your actions speak loud enough. And you know what? I have zero time for you or your guilty conscience. And honestly? I don’t care. I couldn’t care less about you or what you think but it makes me sick that someone like you gets to be in your position and harass people like Sungyeol or me.”

“Would you just let me talk for a moment?” Sunggyu snaps at him. “You know what, you don’t even realise how offensive this is to me too. I would never pick on anyone because of such nonsense, I don’t care, I had no idea your parents were muggles, I don’t follow you around and gather information about you. And this is why I wanted to talk to you, because you just have this in your head and it’s seriously bothering me you would think that. You can think I’m a dick all you want but this is a step too far.”

“Why do you even care what I think?” Woohyun snorts humourlessly.

“I wish I didn’t care, especially because it’s such a bullshit, but I can see it on your stupid face wherever you go and it’s driving me nuts!” Sunggyu yells and Woohyun retreats a step back, surprised. “I have no idea what gave you such an impression but I hate it, I hate it that you think I would actually go so low as to – “

He doesn’t finish his sentence and just waves his hands helplessly.

“You still didn’t tell me why you would pick on _me_ though,” Woohyun says and Sunggyu looks a bit like a deer caught in headlights. “What do you even want me to think then?”

“Maybe because you’re a self-interested hot-shot that – “

“You know what, I’m tired of listening to this,” Woohyun cuts him off and walks over to the door. “You shouldn’t be surprised this is the conclusion I jumped to when I know for a fact that you don’t even mean this. I don’t know if you’re lying to me here, or to yourself.”

 

The heartbeat is so loud in his ears he barely hears Dongwoo when he asks him what’s wrong in the common room later. He’s only on his way to the breakfast and looks still half asleep. Woohyun’s been sitting with his schoolwork in front of him, staring with blind eyes into the space and silently raging. The conversation has been playing over and over in his head and he didn’t even register people waking up and slowly trickling to breakfast.

“I’m fine,” Woohyun grits through his teeth and Dongwoo, bless his soul, is too sleepy to notice how untrue that is.

Woohyun realises that at this point, he doesn’t even care if that half assed attempt at apology or explanation or _whatever_ that was, was sincere or not. He just hates Sunggyu and doesn’t care what _his_ reasons for hating Woohyun are. He’s never done anything to offend him specifically anyway so he has nothing to feel bad about himself.

The snow has stopped falling outside and Woohyun looks out through the window shortly before deciding to go flying by himself rather than agonize over the homework he would never get done in this mood.

 

The Quidditch field is not empty when he reaches it; he has checked that no team booked it for the morning. There’s a single guy flying high above in bright green colours; a beater, if the bat in his hand is anything to go by. Woohyun knows who he is just by looking at the well build shoulders and pretty distinctive flying style – Lee Howon, Slytherin’s beater of three years. He’s a private guy, Woohyun knows that much about him. But as a matter of fact, they say hello when they meet each other in the corridors and Howon’s never been a dick about being on a rival team.

It takes him a few moments to notice Woohyun but he soon flies lower and lower and then lands easily in front of him.

“Hey, Nam,” he says, smiling ever so slightly.

“Morning,” Woohyun returns and points upwards. “You mind sharing the pitch?”

“Not at all,” he answers and quickly hops back onto his broom and back into air.

Woohyun warms himself up a bit before really joining him and Howon – or Hoya, as he’s sometimes called – doesn’t really fly far away.

“Heard you had a little show down with Sunggyu today,” he says conversationally. “He didn’t look good afterwards.”

Woohyun scowls. He would know about it; Woohyun has seen the two of them together before, walking together to classes and sitting together for meals. It never seems like much of a conversation is going down between them but that probably works for them just fine. “You know, for a Slytherin, _you_ ’re a pretty okay guy.”

Hoya laughs and rolls his eyes at the obvious evasion of the topic. “I don’t think the problem here is the houses, is it? I mean, I know there are jerks, especially in our house, that do care about that sort of thing. But Sunggyu?”

“I’m actually pretty sick of people telling me how okay he is when every encounter I have with him proves me otherwise,” Woohyun says and waves a dismissive hand, hoping Hoya wouldn’t push the subject. “You want to train together?”

 

It’s surprisingly fun to train with Hoya, who doesn’t seem to care about helping a player of the opposite team, and the time goes by fast. Hoya mentions the reason for his selflessness is that Woohyun has real aspirations for a professional Quidditch career and he wants to tell about this to his grandchildren one day. He says he is still going to try his best to beat him in the match which is coming up in a few months. Woohyun has heard Hoya is exceptionally good with magical creatures and wants to work with dragons after he finishes his studies at Hogwarts.

Even the sun shows up through the clouds. The orange and yellow rays light up the freezing ground, but the air remains bitingly cold. Woohyun does a quick spin and stays high above the field, looking around the school grounds. The castle really looks amazing when the snow falls; the towers have white hats of snow and the windows blink invitingly with warm lights. The lake is not frozen yet, the dark water unnaturally still and reflecting the clouds above perfectly. He looks over to the Forbidden forest which looks perfectly mysterious and like someone sprinkled it with sugar. For a fleeting moment Woohyun has a feeling something moves along the tree line of the forest; there’s a flash of something quick and orange and it’s gone in a moment.

“Hey, you ready to head to the showers?” Hoya asks, stopping a few metres under him and Woohyun turns away from the forest, almost immediately forgetting there was anything strange.

“Yeah, sure.”

 

They go up towards the castle together for lunch afterwards and talk about the homework they got and how the Quidditch season is going so far. The smell of food makes Woohyun realise how hungry he actually is.

“By the way,” Hoya says when they’re almost in the castle. “I know you don’t want to hear this and Sunggyu would kick my ass if he knew I talked to you about him. But try giving him a chance, huh?”

Woohyun nods only to make him drop the subject.

-

The Quidditch match against Ravenclaw comes around, Myungsoo and Sungyeol even stop by the Gryffindor table _not_ to wish him good luck, all smiles and snickers. Woohyun is afraid they’re there to poison him.

Gryffindor wins anyway.

-

Woohyun decides to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas and tries not to think about all the work he’s going to be doing instead of relaxing and enjoying the holiday atmosphere. The castle is comfortably silent and serene and Woohyun basically lives in the library over the holidays. He gets a lot done, stuffs himself full of candy and mostly doesn’t let anything else bother him. He sees Sunggyu around but the Slytherin doesn’t try to talk to him again and they just avoid crossing their paths.

Overall nothing is out of normal and right before New Year’s, it starts pushing Woohyun to the edge. Normal at Hogwarts is well, _not normal_. It’s a magical castle full of wizards, for one, there should be mysterious things happening all the time.

He feels jittery the morning the first attack happens; there are only a few students in the castle, the word spreads quickly and the students are all gathered in the Great Hall; everybody is nervously pacing around the Hall, not even talking to each other.

“What happened?” Woohyun whispers to Dongwoo when he can’t take the silence anymore. Dongwoo only shrugs his shoulders, looking around a bit anxiously.

“Someone was attacked, apparently it looked like it was some kind of a magical creature,” Myungsoo, who’s been apparently standing just a few steps from them, whispers. “They don’t know _what_ kind of creature though.”

The Headmistress speaks to them shortly after that and actually doesn’t offer any more information than what they already knew. It’s frustrating to say the least. The students are ordered back to their common rooms until further notice.

“What do you think it is?” Dongwoo asks when they’re walking a few steps behind a small group of girls from third year who don’t look at ease at all and keep looking over their shoulders.

Woohyun shrugs. “It’s winter, what can it be, really. Didn’t they say it happened inside though? What kind of animal can get inside when the gate is always closed because of the cold?”

“That’s the thing right,” Dongwoo hums. “I mean there are many creatures clever enough to do just that, but I still don’t know what kind of creature is that smart and _evil_ at the same time, you know, to attack people.”

“But the guy will be okay, she said,” Woohyun adds. The headmistress said a male student from Hufflepuff has been attacked and was left with several superficial wounds that looked worse than they really were. “How deadly is it, then?”

-

And then, nothing happens. A few weeks pass, the students come back from homes after the holidays and the attack is almost forgotten. Somebody mentions it here and there, especially when the attacked guy starts appearing in the corridors again; there is no mark left on him that would suggest he’s been mauled by an animal not ten days ago. The tension leaks out of the castle along with the Christmas decorations and everything goes back to normal, even if the teachers seem to be still on alert.

Another Hogsmeade visit rolls around and Woohyun is coincidently having one rare free weekend with no trainings and no looming deadlines for homework. It’s still deadly cold outside so with Dongwoo, they decide to build the base camp in the Three Broomsticks Inn for the day. They do have a few books for homework with them but they mostly play chess that Dongwoo pulled out of nowhere and just talk about the end of school in a few months.

“Wow,” Dongwoo says suddenly after they have fallen into a comfortable silence and Woohyun has opened a herbology book despite himself. He looks up to see what has got Dongwoo’s attention and he snickers.

At the bar, a girl – apparently a Hufflepuff – is ordering a drink and Dongwoo is not the only guy who has noticed her. Woohyun has no idea who she is but to be fair, he pays attention to the guys exclusively so he can’t really be blamed. She’s Asian, has long sleek hair and there’s a complimenting blush from the cold on her cheeks. Woohyun can like dick and still appreciate that she really is very pretty.

“You know her?” Woohyun asks and nudges Dongwoo, who snaps his mouth shut with an audible click.

“No, I’ve never seen her before,” Dongwoo says and his voice sounds comically dumb.

“How’s that possible? I know there are a lot of people in Hogwarts but really, not _that_ many.”

“ _You_ know her?” Dongwoo snaps but his eyes don’t leave the girl who is now talking to a tall guy from Slytherin who seems nervous enough to piss himself. She smiles at him prettily and the guy’s chest actually puffs up.

“I am a poor judge of that though, don’t you think,” Woohyun laughs, entertained by Dongwoo’s heterosexual frustration. “If you want me to tell you about the guy she’s talking to though…”

“No thanks,” Dongwoo makes a face. “I wonder how is this possible, a girl like that doesn’t go unnoticed.”

Which is true.

“Isn’t it like, what is it called, an Ugly Betty scenario?” Woohyun asks and goes back to the book in his hands. She is pretty but yeah, doesn’t have a penis. “Like, she’s been wearing glasses up till now, didn’t wash her hair and her skirt was long enough to reach her ankles. And now someone gave her a makeover and you all can piss yourselves?”

Dongwoo doesn’t even answer and it’s not like Woohyun would expect him to. He knows he has lost all chances at an intelligent conversation for the day and doesn’t even mind.

-

That evening, there is another attack. Someone from Slytherin, they don’t know who but someone said it was a guy again, got attacked halfway between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, and apparently was much worse off than the first guy. Teachers start roaming the corridors regularly and the school grounds are off the limits for the students. The Quidditch trainings need an adult supervision and therefore are much shorter and stilted, everybody is on edge and their performance is all off. The tension in the castle rises mostly because of the unnecessary panic the younger students start to spread. Woohyun can’t really blame them. An unknown attacker roaming around Hogwarts makes people jump to conclusions and dig up old stories about similar happenings in the castle before. Unfortunately, there is _a lot_ of stories to choose from. Woohyun is not worried he wouldn’t be able to take care of himself but the younger students are obviously stressed and that’s enough to take their rational thinking down a notch.

 

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and it’s just when they’re done with the Defence Against the Dark Arts class that Woohyun hears his name being called by the teacher.

“Can you come here, for a second please?” She says and then much to Woohyun’s mortification turns towards the Slytherins packing their bags. “Sunggyu, dear, a moment?”

“This can’t be good,” Woohyun whispers to Dongwoo who pats his shoulder in sympathy and then promptly leaves for dinner. The traitor.

Woohyun shuffles his feet towards the front of the class and the teacher, Mrs Jones, the head of the Slytherin house _, just by the way_ , rolls her eyes.

“Hurry up, please, you’re not in trouble,” she says exasperatedly. “I have a favour to ask, from both of you.”

Woohyun chances a quick glance at Sunggyu who’s stubbornly staring ahead.

“You know about these attacks lately, right?” She says and looks from one to another. “We think we know what’s behind it.”

Woohyun’s jaw drops a bit and he takes another step forward. Why would she tell them of all people? Or more precisely, why _him_? Sunggyu is the Head Boy, he would definitely be told something like this but Woohyun is just another student.

“I’m not following you at all here,” Woohyun says dumbly and the teacher rolls her eyes again.

“Then let me speak, for god’s sake,” she says and sighs. “I know this comes as a surprise but Sunggyu as the Head Boy would be told anyway and considering the special circumstances and your performance in this class and other, ehm, predispositions, we have decided to ask your help as well.”

Woohyun doesn’t speak up because he wouldn’t even know where to start. He has no idea what she’s building up to here and waits her out. She looks about as uncomfortable as he feels.

“The creature we believe is targeting the students, male students exclusively, is probably a gumiho,” she says slowly. “A nine-tailed fox, actually a beast from Far East that usually does not appear anywhere in Europe. Or even America for the matter. Several countries in East Asia have the legends about similar creature and I guess it doesn’t really matter what we call it. Just to be clear; this is not about you two having Korean roots, even though it’s strangely fitting.”

She heaves a big breath in and continues.

“The nine-tailed fox can take on a human form and targets males in order to feed on them,” she explains. “The goal is to eat their liver, or some sources say heart, that’s beside the point, what matters is that it’s not good news. We are all on alert for a strange person among the students or staff – probably a very beautiful girl roaming around the grounds or even the castle, as the first attack actually happened inside. The teachers, with the Headmistress’s blessing of course, wanted you two to join us. We need any extra pair of hands we can have.”

What.

“What?”

“Look, Sunggyu is the Head Boy and I doubt we would manage to discourage him from helping us anyway. And we appreciate it. We really do. But everyone would be at ease if you weren’t moving around alone as you’re used to and had a backup.”

“And you thought _I_ would be a good idea?” Woohyun’s voice goes embarrassingly high pitched and he would really appreciate if Sunggyu himself offered any kind of insight on this.

“Yes,” she says firmly. “As a matter of fact, yes. I can attest to your good performance in this class.”

Woohyun knows that’s not the reason and he narrows his eyes. He doesn’t suck at the class, not really; he gets by and has fun too, but compared to how ahead he could get in the Charms class and how mediocre he is compared to Sunggyu, this whole situation is laughable.

It’s Sunggyu who speaks up instead, though.

“It turns into a girl and goes after guys?” He asks quietly and the teacher looks relieved for some reason and Woohyun really isn’t keeping up with the program at all.

“Exactly,” the teacher agrees eagerly. “I know this is inappropriate but we really could use the help and all the teachers including me believe you two are more than capable of taking care of yourselves and if need be, taking care of the situation as well. You blend in among the students because well, you _are_ students. And that’s probably how the creature does it anyway.”

Sunggyu only nods and Woohyun can’t stop gaping.

“What is happening now?” He asks and neither of the two looks at him.

Sunggyu’s cheeks pink up a bit and the teacher coughs a few times and hands Sunggyu some scrolls.

“Some pointers for how to deal with the creature,” she says simply and then practically runs out of the room.

Woohyun looks after her and then at Sunggyu who’s packing the scrolls away, pointedly not looking at him. The Slytherin tries to act so casual; it’s painfully obvious that he’s uncomfortable about as much as Woohyun.

“Look I know we don’t like each other but I have literally no idea what just happened,” Woohyun admits.

Sunggyu looks at him as if he was the stupid one here.

“It turns into a girl to seduce men,” he says and Woohyun still doesn’t get it. “For fuck’s sake, think. Would a _girl_ seduce _you_?”

“Hardly,” Woohyun snorts and then it clicks. It’s like he’s seeing Sunggyu for the first time. “You’re gay?”

Sunggyu rolls his eyes but his pink cheeks give him away and he turns to leave too.

“Meet me after dinner here? We can go through the scrolls and make a plan?”

“You’re gay?” Woohyun repeats dumbly and Sunggyu curses something under his breath before marching towards the door.

“This is usually the reaction I’d get from a homophobe,” Sunggyu says already at the door and turns around. “The irony, huh.”

_“You’re gay?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for leaving kudos and comments ♥  
> Still no beta so I'm sorry for grammar mistakes and ridiculous spelling..!


	3. Chapter 3

The thing is, everyone knows Woohyun likes guys. He has never been secretive about it, has dated a few guys from Hogwarts quite publicly too; last year, he spent a few pretty spectacular months with a guy from Hufflepuff who just like him wasn’t looking for anything serious, just some fun before the summer holidays rolled around. There were no hard feelings when they broke it off and they still greet each other in the corridors. So he _knows_ people know. And he thought he knew all the gay guys at Hogwarts anyway; it’s not like there are that many and they just sort of know about one another, know who is _available_. Apparently only _most_ of them. He can’t wrap his head around it and he doesn’t know why it’s working him up so much in the first place.

Dongwoo is looking at him with raised eyebrows during the dinner, chewing slowly his chicken. It takes him a few minutes to really speak up, but Woohyun can see him building up to it anyway.

“You’ve got the weirdest expression I have ever seen on you,” he finally says. “It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“I’m the uncomfortable one here,” Woohyun snaps at him and tries to fight off the involuntary flush raising to his cheeks.

Well so what. It’s not like it changes anything. Sunggyu is still an elitist asshole with attitude that Woohyun can’t stand and that’s it. He just needs a moment alone with these thoughts to make order in them, to decide what it is that he’s thinking. He wants to go over the interactions they have ever had together and analyse if he should have seen this coming or not, if there is anything else this monumental he could have missed. This sheds a different kind of light on things, even if it maybe shouldn’t.

He has to physically shake his head to get his mind out of the gutter because without him wanting, his imagination has started to run wild. Woohyun has already, quite involuntarily, noticed how attractive Sunggyu was, especially ever since he started spending his time regularly trying to kill Sunggyu with his eyes. It did lead to him watching Sunggyu and his pinkish lips and occasionally getting a glimpse of a collarbone, or of long, agile fingers and pale skin that would probably bruise nicely with the slight, right kind of pressure.

Yeah, he needs a moment alone with his thoughts and get this out of his head before it ends up in a hate jerk off session that he wants to avoid at all costs. This is not where he wants this to lead, he’s not going to allow it. Besides, he only knows Sunggyu’s preferences now but he’s pretty sure he himself doesn’t belong to that category anyway.

“I have to go,” Woohyun says when he finishes his meatloaf and grabs his bag. He clears his throat and gets his confused hormones under control.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Dongwoo asks, lifting his eyebrows. “Aren’t we supposed to stay in groups and go to the common room straight after dinner?”

“Apparently, it doesn’t apply to fabulous men like myself,” Woohyun snorts. “Sorry for ditching you, I’ll tell you what this is about without the ears around.”

“Okay, whatever,” Dongwoo waves with a smile and goes back to his chicken without saying anything else.

Woohyun throws a look towards the Slytherin table just when Sunggyu is standing from his own dinner. Their eyes meet and sudden heat in his face surprises Woohyun again. Why is he freaking out so much? There’s absolutely nothing to freak about, he reminds himself. _It doesn’t change anything._

He repeats that like a mantra in his head later when he’s sitting across from Sunggyu, who’s reading through the scrolls and handing them to Woohyun to read it for himself, only speaking up here and there if he finds something really important. Woohyun hears nothing he says, it’s like he’s gone deaf. He can only stare at Sunggyu, at his mouth and his eyelashes and what the fuck is even happening here? He doesn’t want to be like this, he wasn’t into Sunggyu before so why should it change now. Well maybe the anger has always was been turning him on a little bit but he hasn’t allowed himself to think about it before so he won’t do it now.

It's only after Sunggyu looks up and catches him staring that he scowls, pouts almost, and slams his hand against the table. He looks pissed off and that’s a good look on him.

“Snap out of it, seriously,” he says sharply. “So I like cock, what’s the matter with you, I wouldn’t have thought _that_ would be an issue with you.”

“How – don’t talk like that,” Woohyun says dazedly; hearing Sunggyu speak so crudely somehow makes Woohyun hot under the collar again.  It’s only when he hears how hazy his voice sounds that he gets a grip on his swarming feelings and clears his throat pointedly.

“Look,” Sunggyu sighs and puts the parchment down. “I know we haven’t really – that we’re not on the best terms with each other and you refuse to believe I’m not some scum that’s after the muggle borns.”

Woohyun scowls and Sunggyu rolls his eyes at him.

“And it seems that it doesn’t matter what I say so I won’t bother anymore,” he says. “But this is a pretty serious situation and I think it’s much bigger than whatever dramatic vendetta you have towards me. I’m sorry about putting you in detention that one time, now can we just work together?”

He’s right, Woohyun knows he is. Whatever petty hurt there is between them, whatever bad blood, it’s nothing compared to this. It’s not like Woohyun can’t stand his own ground if need be.

He sighs dramatically and one corner of his mouth lifts upwards.

“I still can’t believe they made a gay patrol unit because of a sexy fox girl haunting the castle.”

Sunggyu snorts a surprised laugh and for a moment, it seems like this could actually work.

-

Except it doesn’t work at all. Sunggyu insists on scouting the castle right that night, after the curfew, even though Woohyun very vocally argues that it’s nonsense and tries to talk Sunggyu out of it multiple times. Apparently, there’s not a single strategy they could agree on. The arguments go on and on, like a ball bouncing between two walls, and Woohyun feels a serious headache coming up in the first twenty minutes they start roaming the castle. Sunggyu doesn’t even seem to acknowledge Woohyun at times and just barrels ahead with ideas, snorting whenever Woohyun even tries to speak up.

“Look, I’m really good at defensive spells, I can put up a shield – “

“Oh my god, just give it up,” Woohyun groans and waves a dismissive hand at a lady in a painting they’re passing – she makes a rude gesture because of how loud they’re speaking. “You’re not making yourself a bait, that’s like the lesson one of bad plans.”

“I haven’t heard you come up with a single idea this whole time,” Sunggyu says sulkily.

“Because you wouldn’t let me even speak!” Woohyun snaps. “For starters, I don’t think we would meet a nine-tailed fox here now. She is after men and the only people not safe in common rooms at this hour are either too powerful for it to attack or gay. And I think we can agree the common rooms are safe enough.”

“Don’t forget those snooping around,” Sunggyu says and Woohyun can see his lips twitch a little. He points a shaky finger at him, scandalised expression on his face.

“You’re making fun of it now!” He exclaims. “You made me suffer for a week in that library and even you know how absurd it was.”

Sunggyu shrugs. “I’m not admitting anything.”

“Oh my god,” Woohyun groans, scrubbing a hand down his face. “You’re a lunatic.”

“Just shut up and stay close so I can save your sorry ass in case of an ambush,” he says and Woohyun laughs humourlessly at that.

“You’re such a hero, I might swoon,” he says mockingly.

 

Unsurprisingly nothing happens that night – they find no one, nothing suspicious or out of place. They pass a few ghosts who pay them no mind and a teacher who just rolls his eyes at their eagerness to pitch in. The never-ending bickering slowly fades away; there are progressively less words exchanged between them until there’s silence, not necessarily an uncomfortable one. Woohyun’s mind is busy thinking about the nine-tailed fox and where they could probably find it and if the two of them would even be able to handle it in the first place. And then finally, Sunggyu sighs, rubs his eyes and says they should head for bed.

“Maybe you’re right,” he says, too, and starts walking up the stairs. Woohyun looks after him a bit dumbfounded, because the Slytherin’s Common room is definitely the other way. Something clicks in his head and he speeds up to catch up with Sunggyu, frowning.

“You’re not walking me to my common room, are you,” he says scandalised and Sunggyu doesn’t even slow down.

“Keep up, Nam,” he says. “I’m the Head Boy, I have got to make sure you don’t go wandering around or get lost.”

“You must be joking,” Woohyun says and runs up the stairs to catch up with him. “I’m an adult.”

Woohyun doesn’t say anything after that for a while, frowning and lightheaded for some reason.

“I still think you’re a jerk,” Woohyun finally says when the portrait of the Fat Lady comes into view.

“I know,” Sunggyu says quietly and turns around to walk back. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

-

The next few weeks are eventful. As eventful as they can be with _nothing happening at all_ ; no more attacks happen and only the level of frustration raises before it inevitably starts to fall again. Woohyun and Sunggyu have become the new combo that no one, including them, has become used to yet. Woohyun still thinks it’s pretty hilarious, because he was qualified for this based on his love for dick and that will never stop being equal parts ridiculous and alarming.

Woohyun has been spending increasingly more time with Sunggyu, who took it as his personal mission to find the fox and get rid of it and spends ridiculous amount of time researching it and running Woohyun through his ideas. It seems like once he gets lost in his thoughts, he talks a lot. For some reason, that is still baffling to Woohyun, who has always sort of assumed Sunggyu would be the quiet type. It turns out, there’s a lot on Sunggyu’s mind and he’s not shy of running his mouth for hours if he really works himself up. Woohyun doesn’t even know if he realises he does it sometimes, his mind skipping almost chaotically between different spells they could use to potions that could be helpful and sometimes, he rants on long enough to leave the topic of the fox behind and he mentions the weather or what he would like to eat for dinner or whatever shit he has caught some boys from second year doing. His mind is absolutely fascinating.

“You know there are teachers here as well, right?” Dongwoo asks Sunggyu, who has come to sit with them in the Great Hall after the dinner. These days, it’s not a strange sight anymore, a Slytherin at the Gryffindor table. “And they are actually more competent for this, right?”

Sunggyu merely lifts his eyebrows and doesn’t even look up from a book on magical creatures he’s been reading.

“I know, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try,” he says and Dongwoo shrugs, obviously satisfied with at least trying. “It’s a good experience too, dealing with something like this outside of the classroom. We’ll be out of school soon.”

And that’s a good point. Woohyun exchanges a look with Dongwoo who nods to himself slightly.

“Fair enough,” Woohyun sighs and plucks the book out of Sunggyu’s hands, looking at it briefly. “You’re not even reading about the nine-tailed fox, you nerd. Let’s go.”

They have decided to look around the edge of the Forbidden Forest for the day; scouting the castle has brought no answers or new development so far and this was something they actually agreed on. Furthermore, the ever-present snow has created a thick, white layer over the school grounds where any kind of foot prints would be impossible to hide. It is a chance to maybe move somewhere, finally.

“You know I would love to join you,” Dongwoo lies with a strained smile and points up the stairs, in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

“Whatever,” Woohyun laughs and pulls a beanie over his head. “You’re a lazy ass and we know it.”

Sunggyu only waves at Dongwoo with a smile.

Woohyun tries to pay no mind to just how well Dongwoo and Sunggyu get along. Even though the relationship between him and Sunggyu alone has improved a lot, he still wouldn’t call him his friend and the topics they talk about stay firmly connected to their homework and the monster they’re hunting and they never get personal; unless, of course, Sunggyu doesn’t realise what he’s talking about. Woohyun has brought it up to Dongwoo, trying to sound casual and probably failing. Dongwoo admitted he simply didn’t believe Sunggyu would be a follower of the pure blood ideology; he said he wouldn’t talk Woohyun out of his believes but that he wouldn’t follow him in them either and he became Sunggyu’s friend. There was nothing Woohyun could say to that, because all the time they hung out together, Sunggyu didn’t give them any reason to think of him less.

It’s not easy to admit that he was wrong but it’s been bugging Woohyun for the past few days, that he might really have miscalculated. He’s not really ready to admit that; not to himself, not to Dongwoo and definitely not to Sunggyu. There is nothing in Sunggyu’s behaviour now that would indicate he prefers the pure bloods, that’s simply a fact. And it suddenly starts to seem like just that one coincidence on which Woohyun has built his unconditional dislike for the guy, could really have been just that – _a coincidence_. Now he has seen Sunggyu interact with people who were not in detention, up close, and he is, for the lack of better expression, a nice guy.

 

“Come on,” Sunggyu calls after him and Woohyun speeds up, jogging to catch up with him at the entrance gate.

 

There is a path in the snow to the Quidditch field and another one in the direction of Hogsmeade but no one has really gone to the Forbidden forest in weeks, so getting there is a fight. No students are allowed near the Forest and not even the caretaker has any real reason to go there during the winter, there are no footsteps to follow. They fight through the snow that keeps pilling up in a soft, never-endling flutter from the cloudy sky, slowly nearing the tree line. Woohyun walks ahead, his breath quickening, his feet heavy with the snow. Sunggyu tries to stay in his footsteps to make it easier but he still doesn’t keep up, falling a few steps behind, half-heartedly snapping at Woohyun to wait up for him. They reach the trees after a few minutes of wordless hiking; the forest is thankfully thick enough so that the snow is not so piled up underneath the wide branches and the forest floor is frozen and walking around there is much easier.

“I still don’t know what we would do if we actually found it,” Woohyun says. “I mean, I know, but I’m not sure it would go as easy as we imagine it.”

“Nothing ever goes according to the plan,” Sunggyu huffs, still out of breath.

“I would never guess I’d hear that coming from you,” Woohyun laughs, looking briefly over his shoulder.

Sunggyu has a pretty flush on his cheeks and he’s breathing a bit heavier from trying to keep up with him. He brushes his hair away from his eyes and Woohyun quickly looks away, coughing slightly.

“I just try to seem like I know everything,” Sunggyu says and then rolls his eyes at himself. Woohyun snickers behind his hand, finally turning away.

“And I would have never thought you’d say something like that,” Woohyun says.

“I’m only telling you because no one would believe you I said that,” Sunggyu pants and leans against a tree trunk, breathing deeply for the last time. “And if you do, well…”

“Is that a threat?” Woohyun asks half-heartedly and pulls out his wand, whispering a quick _lumos_ to light up the way; the trees stop both the snow and the light from reaching under the branches.

“No,” Sunggyu says quietly and lights up his wand as well, following Woohyun deeper into the forest.

 

The forest floor is dusted with snow but there isn’t more than a few centimetres of it and everything is unnaturally quiet. The Forbidden Forest is known for its supernatural inhabitants and the magical potential is palpable in the air; there are flowers here and there, blooming in the dead of winter, looking suspiciously poisonous, the trees seem to move at times and a never ending feeling of being watched follows them around. Woohyun whispers a few words and several balls of light float around them, helping them in search of any footprints.

“They don’t stay in groups, right,” Woohyun asks, staring intensely at the clean and unbroken snow under his feet. “There should be only one of them.”

Sunggyu hums something behind him but doesn’t really say anything specific.

“I read they move around really fast, so we have to be quick with the spells,” Woohyun continues. “Immune to fire magic and quite resistant to magic in general, what does that even leave us with?”

They have already talked about this multiple times but he doesn’t like the silence and runs his mouth to keep himself calm. He sighs and looks around, stops walking for a second. He wonders if maybe they should split to cover more ground but that would also mean a certain delay of back up should an attack occur. He’s about to turn around and ask Sunggyu’s opinion when the said Slytherin walks right into him, smashing his face into his back.

“Oof,” Sunggyu makes a noise and stumbles a few steps back. “Sorry.”

Woohyun does turn around then, giving up on the non-existent trail. He lifts an eyebrow at Sunggyu who has the decency to look embarrassed and doesn’t look up to meet his eyes.

“What’s wrong with you, the wrong time to be distracted, don’t you think?” He says and turns around again, deciding to turn their walk a bit to the right.

“You’re right,” Sunggyu says with a sigh and hurries after him. “We can talk later.”

“What?” Woohyun croaks, surprised. “You wanted to talk?”

“Ah, nevermind,” Sunggyu dismisses him. “This can wait.”

“But I’m incredibly curious right now!” Woohyun almost whines and Sunggyu snorts.

“Focus, Nam,” Sunggyu scolds lightly and pushes at Woohyun’s back to get him to speed up. “I’ll tell you afterwards.”

“That sounds so ominous,” Woohyun grumbles. “Just so you know, my imagination is running wild right now. I’m imagining you want me to help you hide a body of someone who pissed you off or maybe – “

“Oh shut up,” Sunggyu laughs. “It’s nothing serious, I guess.”

“ _You_ _guess_?” Woohyun stresses. “That leaves an opening for so many horrible scenarios and all of them are playing out in my head right now.”

“Oh my god,” Sunggyu groans. “I remember the times you wouldn’t talk to me above the bare minimum. I miss those times.”

An awkward silence falls over them and Woohyun bites at his lower lip, finally no words coming to him. That’s right, after they were asked by the teachers to join the hunt, they argued a lot and Woohyun made a point of only answering direct questions connected to the nine-tailed fox. And before that, there was the whole drama with Woohyun hating Sunggyu’s guts for no real reasons where they talked but only to trade insults. It took them literally weeks to slowly warm up to one another, to start greeting each other in the corridors when they would bump into each other. And after that, they would stop for a quick chat about their day and then Woohyun might have accidentally forgotten to go to a class because of a heated discussion on ghouls and muggle football he and Sunggyu were having. And Sunggyu might have missed his class too and then freak about it, quite adorably too. 

Sunggyu clears his throat and it sounds a bit like he’s choking and Woohyun takes a pity on him and sighs. There is no reason to be bringing the past back, Woohyun actually likes how things turned out to be.

“I remember the times you tried to seem cool, composed and mysterious, now you won’t even put in the effort for me anymore,” Woohyun says wistfully. “I feel cheated.”

“Shut up,” Sunggyu mumbles. “I’m plenty mysterious.”

“Yeah, right,” Woohyun snorts and the silence that follows is much more comfortable than the one before.

“Okay,” Sunggyu says after they walk for more than ten minutes without finding anything and the original tension of waiting for an unexpected attack leaks out of them. “What I wanted to say earlier… My sister is getting married.”

Woohyun has been expecting many things but this… Definitely not this. Sunggyu hasn’t even mentioned his sister before, Woohyun only knows he has one because well, everybody sort of knows. She used to be a Head Girl too and Woohyun hasn’t heard anything else about her. Sunggyu has mentioned his parents a few times but very vaguely, obviously not comfortable with the family topic at all. Woohyun didn’t mind and never pushed the conversation in the direction.

“O-kay,” Woohyun says, a bit unsure of where this is leading. “Congratulations?”

“She’s marrying a muggle, an – accountant, I think?” Sunggyu continues and scratches at his hair. “He tried to explain to me what he does last summer, I’m not sure I got it though, something with money and receipts or whatever. I mean what the hell, I’ve been taking the Muggle Studies class for years and some of the professions still fly right over my head.”

Woohyun stops walking and this time, Sunggyu catches himself before they collide.

“Why are you telling me?”

A blush rises to Sunggyu’s cheeks again, pretty pink and unfairly attractive.

“I just hoped,” he starts. “You know, I hope that’s a proof enough that my family is not psycho or something.”

Oh.

Woohyun has no idea how to play this.

“Now I’m not sure if I’m supposed to feel like the biggest jerk for, you know, being a jerk to you those few weeks ago,” he says and Sunggyu isn’t really looking at him, watching the tips of his boots with exaggerated interest. “Or if you made your sister kidnap a guy just to prove me wrong.”

“Ugh, don’t get me started on the two of them,” Sunggyu says and makes a disgusted face. “They started going out when she was still at Hogwarts, though she told him about the whole magic thing only like a year ago. If she thought it would scare him off, it did exactly the opposite. They are disgusting together.”

Woohyun nods and Sunggyu continues.

“I don’t want you to feel like a jerk,” he adds, finally moving his eyes up. “I just, I feel like this is an unfinished business and I told you before, it really bothered me that you thought that, even before we became friends and – “

Woohyun has no time to examine the warmth that spreads through his gut when Sunggyu says they’re friends, or take in how cute Sunggyu looks when he’s flustered and babbling or how he really should be feeling like a jerk because apparently, he’s been giving Sunggyu a hard time about something that hit home much more than he thought. He has no time because that’s when in the silence around them, interrupted only by the occasional, soft rustle of branches above their heads, a new and far more threatening sound appears. The light growl and a pair of bright orange eyes quickly approach and Sunggyu’s soft, open expression Woohyun would like to watch for hours transforms into a hard, concentrated one and he pushes Woohyun behind himself. He does a very complicated swing with his wand, doesn’t say anything, but the fox suddenly stops its approach, eyes narrowing. There is something blocking her further approach, invisible to Woohyun’s eyes, but apparently powerful enough.

The fox is bigger than Woohyun thought it would be, much bigger; it has a pair of terrifying fangs and scarily intelligent eyes too. The tails, all nine of them, never stop moving, angrily whipping in the air, but it doesn’t move any further. Woohyun has met his share of magical creatures in his time in Hogwarts but he’s never seen one this vicious and dangerous at the same time. He suddenly realises how cocky it was of them to go looking for it in the Forest, where more creatures like this could be hiding. 

It comes to his mind just how lucky he is that Sunggyu is there with him, because he has no idea what spell he’s just used but it’s obviously working and it’s obviously much more complex and difficult than whatever they ever learnt in their classes.

Woohyun is about to open his mouth to say something when the fox zeroes in on him instead of Sunggyu and then, right there, it transforms into a girl; a short Asian with small pretty eyes and brown hair to her shoulders... Woohyun would like to die because what’s standing right there in front of them is basically a female version of the Slytherin right next to him. Sunggyu doesn’t really seem to notice that and this is not the time to be embarrassed anyway, Woohyun realises, and snorts a hysterical giggle into the silence between them.

“I don’t think so,” Sunggyu says, his voice steely ice.

She’s not looking at him, though, still at Woohyun and god, why is she naked too.

“Yeah, really,” he says and wonders why he has the sudden urge to be polite about declining her. He’s had to let down a fair share of girls in his lifetime and he hates doing it. This is no girl, though, he reminds himself and clears his throat. “No dick, no nothing.”

Sunggyu snorts next to him and then takes a step forward.

“You’re on the grounds of Hogwarts and you’re not welcome,” Sunggyu says and he lifts his wand a bit higher. The little give the fox seemed to have won against the spell disappears and she stiffens; she looks even angrier than before. “Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

“I have nothing to say to the two of you, boy-loving scum,” she hisses hatefully.

Fire flames lick around her bare ankles, upwards and in a blink of an eye, she goes up in a fire ball explosion that disappears into thin air in the next second. It’s all very anticlimactic and terrifying at the same time.

“Okay that didn’t go the way I thought it would.”

 

The walk back to the castle is spent in a deep, thoughtful silence and they say goodbye almost absentmindedly; Sunggyu off in a search of a teacher to report to on the new developments and Woohyun in desperate need of a good night sleep.

-

Sunggyu is frowning, lost in thoughts, when he comes to sit with them after dinner three days after, barely even saying hi.

“You look funny when you’re serious,” Dongwoo offers after a few minutes of silence and Woohyun realises he’s been staring at Sunggyu since he sat down and quickly averts his eyes.

He wouldn’t say funny; the lines of Sunggyu’s face when frowning make him look a bit older and even more handsome. He likes it more when Sunggyu smiles, though, his whole face lights up then and his eyes almost disappear and –

Woohyun chokes on the water he’s been drinking in an attempt to hide his blatant staring before and the realisation of it. He tries to ignore the stares his behaviour earns him from the two other guys and busies himself with a book or whatever he can find in the bag next to him. He chances a glance up after a few more seconds and catches Sunggyu’s eyes watching him; the Slytherin quickly looks away and clears his throat.

“Okay, new strategy.”

-

They’re once again roaming the corridors of the castle for a couple of hours before sleep; Woohyun thinks he now joins Sunggyu for completely different reasons than before and doesn’t complain even once. Now they know more about the fox, they know that it’s much more powerful than they anticipated, and the teachers have been warned and the castle accordingly warded. There is no way anyone could get inside once the castle locks. He’s not going to point it out, though, because he likes spending his time with Sunggyu and they use the time to make new plans for how to catch or kill the fox.

“I’ve been actually told to stay out of it,” Sunggyu admits, leaning against a wall. They have stopped walking in a corridor close to the Gryffindor common room where Sunggyu still insists on accompanying Woohyun before he himself takes off to his own bedroom. “I mean, no one told me specifically to stop looking and trying but you know, I don’t think they want us getting involved again.”

“Yeah, I mean I think we got really lucky the last time, because we surprised it,” Woohyun agrees. “It probably has a den or something too.”

“The Quidditch match next week is going to be a problem,” Sunggyu says, biting at his lower lip in thought. “The whole school will be outside, it will be easy to get lost among the students and potentially to get into the castle.”

Woohyun nods and doesn’t comment; it’s not like he can help in any way, because it’s their match, Gryffindor is playing; against Slytherin, no less.

A few minutes of silence fall over them, comfortable and easy. Woohyun dumbly realises how nice Sunggyu looks in the light of the candles, the orange glow making his skin look incredibly soft and touchable. His eyes reflect the flames, making them all sparkly and pretty too.

Woohyun gets caught staring again; Sunggyu’s eyes are curious and not at all defensive and so Woohyun doesn’t look away. They stand there, in the cold corridor, looking at each other like they’ve never done before. Without realising it, Woohyun licks at his lower lip, maybe for the lack of anything better to do, and Sunggyu’s eyes drop to his mouth briefly. He doesn’t shy away even then and Woohyun can feel the tension rising between them, almost palpable in the air; he finally admits it to himself, how much he wants to cross those few steps separating them, how he wants to touch Sunggyu’s hair, push him back against the wall and keep him there and close to himself, how he wants to kiss him.

Sunggyu looks a bit torn between saying something and moving and Woohyun knows what it looks like when someone is checking him out so he’s pretty sure he’s not imagining this all.

“Woohyun,” he says, his voice strangely quiet and a bit broken and hoarse and it makes the hair on Woohyun’s arms stand.

He moves, even manages to take a step forward, when there are footsteps from around the corner and Mr Mitchel, the head of the Gryffindor house, appears.

“You boys are still up and about?” He asks a bit surprised and then shakes his head slightly. “Off to bed, seriously, no need for this.”

He walks pass them, oblivious to their guilty expressions and the awkward atmosphere that falls over them, and he again disappears behind another corner, obviously not at all concerned about if they’re going to listen to him or not.

“I – “ Woohyun says and clears his throat, looking at Sunggyu briefly. “I’ll be going then?”

It comes out as a question, even though he didn’t really intend it as one and he cringes a bit. The moment is broken, the atmosphere has changed and it’s suddenly weird and Woohyun feels uncomfortably cold.

“Woohyun, wait,” Sunggyu calls after him, only when he’s already managed to make his feet move, no matter how reluctantly.

Woohyun turns around expectantly and a bit scared but Sunggyu seems to be at loss for words and doesn’t follow up with anything. The tension Woohyun didn’t realise was in his shoulders leaks out at the sight.

“Hey,” he says softly and Sunggyu looks hopefully at him, obviously glad he doesn’t have to look for the right words to say anymore. “We’ll talk about this, okay, in private, after the game?”

And Sunggyu nods, relieved, and a shy smile blooms on his face. It makes it totally worth it.

-

Then they never get to it.

Gryffindor beats Slytherin because Woohyun manages to catch the snitch in the first five minutes of the match, determined to get this over with as soon as possible. The weather was perfect for Quidditch, a clear day, almost no wind, and normally, Woohyun would let the game go on for longer. The students are disappointed that the match didn’t even stretch to an hour, the teachers look incredibly relieved they can drag everyone back in the castle and Woohyun hurries into the changing rooms ignoring his confusedly cheering teammates.

It’s just when Woohyun is making his way through the crowd in the Entrance Hall, trying not to seem too obvious in his search for a certain Slytherin student, that Mr Mitchel appears on his side instead. Woohyun knows something is wrong immediately; Mr Mitchel is an extraordinarily chill guy, more like a friend to them than any other teacher, and the pinched, stressed expression is like nothing Woohyun has seen on him before.

All the thoughts he’s had that day and the night before, about the game, about Sunggyu and where they’re headed disappear in an instant.

There has been another attack; Dongwoo is the victim.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Woohyun doesn’t hear what the nurse is telling him, what the two or three teachers who come by say or even Sunggyu, who appears later, flushed and with wide eyes. He can’t concentrate on words when Dongwoo is lying there, unmoving and breathing with difficulty. He’ll live; that’s what the nurse told him and that’s the last thing he recalls hearing. The rest afterwards; if there would be consequences, how long it will take for him to heal, it all became a jumble of sounds in his head until it all faded into nothing as he watched his best friend’s face, refusing to look away for a second.

Dongwoo is unhealthily pale and even though there are no injuries in his face, his torso is bandaged up and in the span of a few hours in which Woohyun sat next to him unmovable, the nurse had to change them twice. The blood soaked through and even though Woohyun tried not to look, he morbidly peeked at the injuries his friend had, and his heart sank. It was like nothing he had ever seen before; at least four deep cuts, sluggishly bleeding, torn skin, darkened at the edges, the unmistakable shape of claws tearing up flesh. It was a work of ugly, malicious magic which still lingered in the wounds even hours later.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo come along as well and Woohyun registers them mostly because they don’t talk to him but speak directly to Dongwoo instead. He notices Sungyeol’s voice gradually getting louder; he’s telling Dongwoo some sort of story and gets excited in the middle, forgetting he’s in the hospital wing and the nurse comes to scold him. Woohyun’s heart warms at that for a little bit.

After that, it’s quiet again and he gets lost in his thoughts. He feels like he’s going to throw up a few times, panic rising up in his chest to the point where he can’t breathe and then there are moments of peace when he tells himself _the nurse will figure this out, she always does, Dongwoo will be okay_. Then the anger comes, acidic at the back of his throat, hot tears pushing at his eyes, because this is sort of his fault, he should have known better, should have done things differently, somehow should have prevented this.

He startles when a hand lands on his shoulder and he looks up to meet the nurse’s sympathetic but firm stare. She doesn’t even have to say anything, her eyes flicker up to the door and her eyebrows climb a bit higher, daring him to decline. He hasn’t eaten anything in hours and the fatigue of the day catches up with him in that moment, his legs feeling wobbly when he finally stands up.

He gets out of there like in a dream, not thinking about where he’s going, just functioning on auto-pilot. The Common Room is full of people when he reaches it after who knows how long and he ignores the questions sent his way, unable to find the words for answers. He has nothing to say, he has no idea what’s going to happen next with Dongwoo or the attacker and he has absolutely no desire to talk to anyone at all.

-

The next few days pass in a blur; he goes to classes, goes to his Quidditch trainings, managing that with so much as a few words a day. Nobody pressures him, the teachers well aware of the situation and the other students knowing better than to ask him again. He avoids human interaction as much as he can, hating the sympathetic looks thrown his way, which he feels are completely misplaced.

It’s the third day after the attack, Woohyun is in the Common Room with a book, not even realising it’s opened upside down in his hands. He’s blankly staring at the fireplace, a thoughtful frown on his face, when a shadow falls over his face and a tall, blonde guy sits next to him.

“So how is he doing?” Henry asks, his forehead creased with worry. Henry is in their year also in Gryffindor, he’s known them both for over six years now and Woohyun knows his worry is legit. He sometimes joins them for the trips to Hogsmeade and here and there watches them play chess while he complains about his on and off girlfriend from Hufflepuff.

“He woke up yesterday,” Woohyun smiles tightly, finally flipping the book closed. “He suffered a huge blood loss but all of his organs are okay. He’ll be fine, without lasting damage. He will have to stay in the hospital wing for at least two more weeks, mostly because of the magical imprint left on him.”

Henry nods a few times, a deep frown on his face. It’s good news but Dongwoo has been in a lot of pain not even the nurse knows how to take away and Woohyun hates how helpless he is, unable to do anything for his friend.

“It sucks,” he says absentmindedly. “I hate the bitch that did that to him.”

Henry looks at his watch and his eyebrows go up. “Do you think I could go and stop by, see how he’s doing? Do they allow visitors, other than you?”

“I think he’ll be glad to see someone else than me,” Woohyun sighs. “He says that he knows I’ve been sitting there the whole time, which is true, and so by default, he’s sick of me already. So you should go, I think it’s a good idea. I’ll give you some sweets for him, will you smuggle them for him?”

“Of course.”

-

Woohyun knows that the rage that is pent up in him will result in a catastrophe rather sooner than later. He’s not thinking straight, the anger is clouding his judgement and the need for vengeance doesn’t really leave any room for any rational thoughts. It’s after another of his visits to Dongwoo, who has tried and failed to hide his blatant, unrelenting pain. Woohyun has seen his wounds again, not sluggishly bleeding anymore but still angrily read, still looking like they could burst open any second. Dongwoo couldn’t stand on his feet for more than a few minutes at a time, getting exhausted way too quickly. There was sickly sweat on his forehead and still, he tried to smile at Woohyun, to make it all seem less serious. It made Woohyun feel worse, though, because he has met the fox, he should have known better, should have ended things with the creature when it was right in front of him.

The thoughts that have been swimming around in his head for days now resurface and with clarity, he realises what he must to. He wants to catch the fox, he hates the beast and wants to make it suffer for what it did to his best friend and that’s exactly what he’s going to do now. He’s read enough about the gumiho to know how to defeat it, knows not to count on raw magic only, because the creatures have high tolerance to it, knows to expect being attacked by fire magic for his trouble. He’s sick of sitting on his ass and even though everything he knows is just theory, in that moment it seems more than enough.

Nobody really pays any attention to him when he stands up in the Common Room late after dinner and disappears outside behind the portrait; he’s been leaving after hours for more than a month now, regularly, it’s nothing new.

He knows he should probably tell someone, just so they would know where he’s disappearing off to, in case he doesn’t come back. But the rational part of him is not really the one in charge at the moment, so he stomps down the corridor, determined to get rid of the fox once and for all, by himself. The inactivity of the teachers has been driving him insane and he’s been stewing in his anger and guilt for days. He doesn’t want to be rational at the moment, he wants to be impulsive and stupid and just do this. He’s an adult, after all, a voice in his head whispers, he will be a graduated wizard in less than half a year.

Renewed vigour and determination make him straighten his back and some of the tension leaks out of his shoulders as he runs down the stairs. He can do this, he should be able to do this.

But he doesn’t get far; two figures appear from the shadows in the Entrance hall and step in his way. Woohyun’s head snaps up, his fingers already fastened on his wand. He’s on the edge, he knows it, and he has zero patience to be explaining himself to anybody, even less the two Ravenclaws currently frowning at him.

“Not now,” Woohyun growls, glaring at Sungyeol and Myungsoo. The two exchange a meaningful look, obviously not having any of Woohyun’s attitude.  

“Exactly now,” Sungyeol says and twirls his wand between his fingers like a drummer. “We’re going with you.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Woohyun barks, impatient. The longer he stays here, the bigger the chance is a teacher will find them and he doesn’t need to hear another lecture about safety or reckless actions.

“I don’t think that’s up to you,” Myungsoo counters, he has his wand out as well; it’s unusually long and seems to be alive in his hand. “We want to go and we will.”

“You’re not even supposed to be out now,” Woohyun says sharply and the two Ravenclaws roll their eyes, as if they expected to hear something like that.

“As a matter of fact, you’re not either,” a new voice joins the conversation and just like Sungyeol and Myungsoo before, Sunggyu seems to appear out of thin air. He is dressed for outside as well, a determined set to his shoulders. Woohyun realises he hasn’t seen him in days and now that he does, something settles deep in his gut, comforted. Now is not the time for those thoughts and feelings though, this can wait.

So Woohyun scowls instead, defiantly rising his chin.

“You gonna give me detention?”

Sunggyu rolls his eyes. “Don’t be a child. I’m going with you too.”

Woohyun tries to come up with an argument for why this all is a horrible idea, tries to reason with Sunggyu, who after all should be the sane one here when he himself is clearly out of his mind, but nothing seems to work. As a matter of fact, neither Sungyeol or Myungsoo even seem to acknowledge his attempts at stopping them and start walking ahead towards the closed, sealed gate without looking back twice.

Woohyun finally has to admit to himself he probably won’t manage to talk them out of it and only when they’re marching towards the forest, he realises he’s probably really lucky to have a backup and especially that it’s them.

The first obstacle in their way was the school gate, designed to protect the students and everybody in the castle and Woohyun always assumed it would be impossible for any of the students to get through. Myungsoo pushed him out of the way when he simply tried to open it with physical force, mumbling something unflattering to himself. It didn’t take him more than five seconds of fumbling and a few words of what didn’t sound like a spell, more like a completely different language. Woohyun’s jaw slacked when the hard wood obediently went out of their way and once they were outside, sealed itself again with a silent click. Sungyeol patted his shoulder with a knowing wink and joined Myungsoo’s side, nudging him with his hip affectionately. Woohyun quickly closed his mouth and hurried after them. They’re supposed to be the clever ones, after all, the Ravenclaws.

Sunggyu falls into step next to him on their way to the Forest and Woohyun gives him a short, questioning look. He really would expect some sort of lecture right about now but Sunggyu doesn’t question what he is doing, doesn’t say anything about the two Ravenclaws, he doesn’t say anything at all. He notices Woohyun’s look and a tiny smile nudges at his lips; he reaches for Woohyun’s hand and squeezes it shortly instead. Woohyun tries not to let the small gesture shake him to the core, but it kind of does anyway.

“Yeol, wait up,” Sunggyu finally says and Woohyun thinks that this is when the other shoe drops. This is when Sunggyu puts an end to this and sends them all back.

Instead he says, “we need a plan,” and Woohyun’s almost embarrassingly relieved.

 

Sunggyu catches up with the two Ravenclaws to fill them up on the information they have spent weeks collecting, he tells them quickly about their last encounter and answers some of their questions of their own. Woohyun is just insanely glad he doesn’t have to do it himself.

-

After that it all happens in a blur, Woohyun later doesn’t recall much with the adrenaline rush pumping through him. They get to the Forbidden Forest, their wands and makeshift light balls guiding them through the forest where it’s already too dark to see, all four of them ready for a fight. There is not much snow left, just wet mud but Woohyun is so done looking for footprints anyway, he simply marches ahead. Somehow, he knows they are going to find what they’re looking for; he feels his restlessness growing the longer they are in the Forest, he can feel the eyes of the woodland creatures watching them and he is sure they’re going in the right direction. And then, everything goes unnaturally silent, and even their own steps, up till now absurdly loud because of the mud, seem to quiet down.

Many things happen at the same time in the next few seconds; a deer jumps at them from the darkness, startles them all, and then it’s gone and instead the fox appears, not bothering with a human form this time. It seems bigger than the last time, angrier and more vicious. It uses the tales as weapons, swinging them angrily; it takes one contact with a tree trunk, which basically snaps in two immediately, to realise how strong they are. Spells and curses start flying through the air, crackling loudly against the trunks when they miss and colourful flashes light up the trees and the shadows of the forest. The fox is impossibly fast, dodging, but a few of the spells meet their target and angry snarls echo through the night air. It doesn’t seem to be really working, just as they predicted, magic only annoys the creature but doesn’t really hurt it.  

Woohyun tries some of the strongest spells he knows, hoping they would be enough to hurt the fox, but the creature seems to know when a real deal is heading its way and dodges all the powerful spells, choosing to take hits from the weaker ones instead. The forest around them quickly turns into a wreckage from the spells that didn’t find its mark and they all stumble around, trying to find a cover when needed.

They keep it busy; all four of them relentlessly trying to take the creature down.

Sunggyu is his usual terrifying self, not a single word uttered by him as he puts together powerful, graceful magic that has the hair on the back of Woohyun’s neck standing. He tries the same spell as last time, to trap the fox and prevent it from moving, but the creature doesn’t fall for the same trick twice. He starts using offensive spells too, terrifying and complex, and Woohyun has always known he would be good at those too.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo seem to be working together, creating combinations of spells that compliment each other; one of them creates something and the other enlarges it and sends it flying. They move like one man, pushing each other out of harm’s way and to be honest, they’re terrifying and like nothing Woohyun has ever seen before. At one point, he’s pretty sure Sungyeol just hands his wand over to Myungsoo who makes a combined spell with both of them.

The fox counters their attacks with its own, sending burning fireballs their way when there’s so much as a second of delay between their attacks. The ground is wet from the melted snow but the wood catches fire quickly, the magical flames of the fox too powerful for it to resist.

It gets messier after that, because the fire starts getting in the way too, and Woohyun loses track of the other guys pretty quickly. He manages to dodge another fire ball, stumbles, and just when he thinks he’s going to fall with the mud slipping under his feet, invisible force moves him backwards. He looks madly around to see what happened only to see a huge piece of wood fall at the place where he was about to fall.

Woohyun’s eyes fall at Sunggyu who gives him a quick salute before jumping back into the fight. Woohyun looks back at the tree trunk lying just a few metres in front of him and he narrows his eyes, quickly swinging his wand in the air. It’s a simple spell that lifts the wood into the air, but that’s not going to be enough on its own. They need to deal a significant physical blow if magic is not doing the trick and they need to do it now.  

“Sunggyu!” he calls and the Slytherin looks his way, recognition flashing through his eyes.

They wait for a few seconds until the fox is busy trying to bite Myungsoo’s face off, and then he lets the tree fly through the air at an incredible speed and Sunggyu adds an extra kick, something that keeps the fox down after it connects. There’s a sickening sound of broken bone cracking through the air, a splash of blood, and a horrible cry. The fox stays down afterwards, unmoving, the tree pushing it continuously into the ground with whatever spell Sunggyu has used.

A deafening silence falls over them in the next second when they realise that it’s over. The fox, the main source of noise so far, is lying lifeless on the ground, and it takes a few moments for that to sink in. Then the sound comes back up just as suddenly as it had seemed to have disappear and they all pant for air loudly. The adrenaline rush is still pretty high, so they don’t realise they have scratches and burns at places, that they are honestly pretty gross; sweaty and bloody. Nobody says anything for a long time, except for Sunggyu, who mumbles a few words to first put out the fires the fox has started during the fight and then to bind the creature with ropes that appear out of thin air. The fox is undoubtedly still alive and the constrains will be needed.

They all exchange some looks but nobody says anything; Sungyeol walks over to the fox to kick it once and then they gather the last of their strength to go back to the Castle.

 

Woohyun feels sick satisfaction when looking at the creature hanging in the air on the way back up to the Castle. Its tails drag through the mud and the slightly crooked body is a grotesque sight. They are all dirty and tired and right before the gate, Sunggyu turns to them and waves his wand wordlessly; the mud disappears from their shoes and Woohyun hears it splash somewhere down the road.

“Okay, the thing is; not even I and Woohyun were supposed to be out tonight and even more so not in the Forbidden Forest. And Sungyeol and Myungsoo were _definitely_ not supposed to be anywhere at all. So what I suggest now – you two, off to bed. I’ll take the creature to the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, after she’s ecstatic with it being caught, I’ll mention who was involved and ease her into the story. And then I probably need to go see the nurse, I don’t feel too good.”

The humming in Woohyun’s ears comes to a sudden stop and his eyes snap from the ground to Sunggyu; in the light coming from the torches at the gate, Woohyun can now see a bloody gash on his forehead and that his face is a bit greenish. Woohyun feels nauseous himself when he realises he hasn’t noticed that before and takes an unconscious step towards the Slytherin who gives him a weak smile.

Woohyun looks briefly to the two Ravenclaws who seem to be in need of some medical attention as well and he shakes his head resolutely.

“Okay, I just decided you will go to the nurse right now, these two will go with you to make sure you get there, get themselves checked as well and then they’ll go to bed. I’ll go find Ms Jones,” Woohyun narrows his eyes at Sunggyu when he opens his mouth to protest. “Don’t make me argue with you now. I’m on edge, Sunggyu. Do as I say.”

And then a miracle happens; Sunggyu doesn’t say anything and listens to him instead. The tension that has been keeping him upright up till now leaks out of him immediately and the pain he’s been in starts showing up on his face. Woohyun takes another step and cautiously touches Sunggyu’s shoulder, just making sure he stays on his feet.

“I’m fine,” Sunggyu lies dumbly and Woohyun rolls his eyes.

He turns to the two other students, daring them to stay a word.

“Let’s do this,” Woohyun says and pushes Sunggyu towards the gate; Sungyeol and Myungsoo step up to him from either side to help him in case he stumbles and they go ahead.

 

The teacher seems to be stuck between livid and relieved and demands to know who was involved and why the hell, in the middle of the night. First, they go into the dungeons to secure the monster and right away, she sends for the Headmistress to inform her about the situation. Woohyun sits there the whole time she writes an extensive letter to the Ministry of Magic as well, even makes him go get an owl. Only then she acknowledges him; by screaming at him for about ten minutes about irresponsibility, idiocy of teenage boys and her hatred for the teacher job. Only then she starts asking him questions in a tired voice. Woohyun’s patience starts to wear thin twenty minutes into the interrogation and he’s about to pull a lie about an injury of his own out of his ass, just to get out of there, when the teacher sighs with resignation.

“Why do you boys have to be so dramatic about everything,” it doesn’t sound like a question Woohyun is supposed to answer so he only shrugs.

“Shouldn’t have gone after my best friend,” he says simply and the teacher rolls her eyes.

“We’ll talk about this with the Headmistress tomorrow, again” she says. “All four of you.”

“Of course,” Woohyun nods and walks over to the door before she can think it through and ask him something else. “I’ll be going then.”

“Woohyun,” she calls and he closes his eyes, cursing internally, before he turns around with a forced smile. “You guys did a great job today. As your teacher I should be angry but also as a teacher of the Defence against the dark arts class, I’m very proud.”

The next smile that pulls at Woohyun’s lips is genuine and he nods.

“Thanks.”

“Now straight to bed, Woohyun,” the teacher calls after him and he nods.

He doesn’t go to bed.

-

The nurse looks at him like she’s going to physically hurt him when he sneaks into the hospital wing and runs right into her. So much for “sneaking”.

“I can’t believe you,” she snaps at him in a hushed voice, careful not to wake the few students who are sleeping in the wing. “I thought I told you hundred times that it will take at least another week before Mr Jang can go and I swear to god, I will ban you from here.”

He looks at her guiltily and then sneaks a peek over her shoulder to where Sunggyu is sitting on one of the beds, an absentminded look on his face. Dongwoo is on the other side of the room, the familiar sound of his horrid snoring loud and clear in the silence of the night.

“Oh – Mr Kim?” The nurse says, following his look. “He’s fine; concussed and a bit out of it. He has to sleep it off, I gave him something to help with the headache and nausea. He’ll stay here tonight. Alone.”

Woohyun nods and doesn’t really look back at her.

“You’re not injured, are you?” She asks finally, looking him over critically. “You young ones are in such a hurry to get in trouble.”

“No, I’m fine,” Woohyun admits and she sighs when he tries to look at her pleadingly.

“Five minutes,” she snaps at him finally. “And then I want you out. And don’t wake up any of the patients.”

“Thanks,” Woohyun says gratefully and the nurse disappears into her office.

Woohyun takes a deep breath and hurries the few steps to where Sunggyu is sitting, changed into comfy looking pyjamas. There’s a bandage on his head and a dopy look on his face. The Slytherin lifts his head and smiles at Woohyun stupidly.

“Man, you look stoned,” Woohyun mutters and sits on the empty bed next to Sunggyu’s.

“I don’t know what that means,” Sunggyu says and his voice is unsteady and a bit hysterical. “I feel really weird.”

“You have a concussion,” Woohyun says mildly, can’t help but smile back at him, relieved to see him feeling at least a bit better. “It will wear off, the potion.”

Sunggyu nods to himself but Woohyun would bet all his money he doesn’t really know what he’s being told.

“I talked with the teacher,” Woohyun offers. “Myungsoo and Sungyeol won’t get into any trouble but we’ll have to tell everything to the Headmistress tomorrow as well and we might actually earn some points for our houses too. She was livid, you should have seen her.”

“Okay,” Sunggyu says simply and Woohyun knows there is really no reason to be having a conversation now. Sunggyu seems to be more interested in looking at his fingers than to listen to whatever Woohyun has to say.

He doesn’t mind; it’s nicely quiet in the wing and he can look at Sunggyu without really worrying about being caught. The Slytherin gives him a soft smile when he notices him staring but doesn’t comment on it, doesn’t seem to think much of it in the moment. Woohyun feels the tension of the night settling down and he wishes Sunggyu had his wits about; there’s so much he wants to tell him in that moment. The time seems to stop, Woohyun doesn’t really want to go anywhere, feels like his place is there where Sunggyu, no matter how drugged, is. He smiles a bit to himself and it’s only when Sunggyu yawns adorably that he realises how tired he himself is.

“Okay, I’m just going to go,” Woohyun says after the nurse pointedly looks out of her office and shakes her head. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

-

When Woohyun stops by the hospital wing before the breakfast the following morning, Sunggyu is gone. The nurse doesn’t seem too keen on sharing any information with him but takes a pity on him and says Sunggyu has woken up feeling fine, no lingering pains or nausea from the concussion, and insisted on leaving as soon as possible. Woohyun feels only a little bit dejected and walks through the castle deep in thoughts.

He’s not even sure what he would tell Sunggyu in the first place, all the words from last night seem to have disappeared and he’s left with blank mind and a whole bunch of doubts. Maybe he is being too pushy. Sure, they became sort of friends over the weeks and maybe Woohyun is now aware of the nagging feelings he has around the guy and understands them for what they are. He likes Sunggyu, there is no other way around that, and maybe he sometimes could feel the other’s look on him when he thought Woohyun wouldn’t notice too. And maybe some of their conversations would steer into dangerously flirtatious zones and there could have been moments Woohyun had to physically restrain himself from jumping the guy. But it all could have been just made up in his stupid, obsessive head.

Just a few months prior, he was convinced the guy hated his guts and was discriminating the muggle born kids. Now he knows he couldn’t have been more wrong. And that makes his opinions and instincts pretty untrustworthy. Doubts start to worm their way into his mind and the corners of his mouth turn downward just as his mood sinks.

In retrospect, he doesn’t feel particularly relieved about the events of the previous night. He was so mad and determined that there was no room for possible failure in his mind. He did freak out a bit after he got back to the common room, which was by then understandably empty and full of shadows. He realised how dangerous what they did was, how horribly it could have gone, and it would be all on him. He had dragged three other people into it, obsessed with his own revenge to even stop for a minute and consider how stupid and irresponsible he was being. All the good arguments he had worked up in his head before suddenly seem childish and he feels uncomfortably young.

Dongwoo doesn’t force him into much of a conversation when he stops by the Infirmary again after lunch. He has a free afternoon ahead and doesn’t particularly feel like being anywhere around people other than his best friend.

He hasn’t caught a single glimpse of Sunggyu the whole day and it made his mood even worse.

“What is this really about?” Dongwoo asks with narrowed eyes, chocolate pudding in his hand. “You’ve got to spill your guts right now before you work yourself into overdrive. I can see how much overthinking you’re doing and it makes me sick at stomach.”

The nurse’s head snaps up from where she’s attending to another student, a girl with unnaturally hairy hands (an obvious attempt at getting _rid of the hair_ ), and Dongwoo waves at her apologetically. “A figure of speech! Just a figure of speech!”

Woohyun rolls his eyes and sighs, dramatically. “It’s Sunggyu.”

Much to his annoyance, Dongwoo doesn’t even try to pretend and be surprised.

“Oh no, who, Sunggyu?” He says, mocking. “The guy you had your panties in a twist about for the last half a year?”

Woohyun’s frown deepens and he flips Dongwoo off. “How about you shut up and eat your pudding?”

“Look, mate, this is between the two of you,” Dongwoo lifts his hands in surrender. “And by that I mean you should let Sunggyu in on this conversation you’re probably imagining in your head and getting mad over.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Woohyun lies.

“I can honestly tell you I’ll be happy for both of you once you get your heads out of your asses,” Dongwoo says with a disgusted face. “It’s been painful to watch you dance around this.”

“What?” Woohyun asks. He’s pretty sure he hasn’t been dancing around anything; the realisation that he probably could want something with Sunggyu other than a fist fight is a few days old.

“Oh please,” Dongwoo waves a dismissive hand. “You weren’t so obsessed with your last boyfriend, the what’s his face from Hufflepuff, and trust me, it was the same kind of obsessed right from the beginning. Sunggyu was all you talked about for months, I don’t think you even realised.”

Woohyun gapes at him.

“I hated him!” He says defensively. He doesn’t know anymore what his point is.

“Yeah, please, like I believe that,” Dongwoo jams more pudding into his mouth and it gets very disturbing from there.

He doesn’t bother swallowing before he starts mimicking Woohyun’s voice in a horrible, unconvincing way. _“Sunggyu did this and Sunggyu did that, why is he such an asshole, why are his hands so nice, help me Dongwoo, I want to kill him, I want to fuck him_.”

“I never said any of that,” Woohyun argues weakly. “And I sound nothing like that!”

“Maybe not but you might as well have,” Dongwoo snaps. “I’ve had enough of this, you know. From both of you. You are your usual passive aggressive self when you get obsessed like this but you should hear Sunggyu when he starts talking, there’s no stopping him. I think he realises that even less than you, all the shit I had to hear about your ‘stupid complexes and over confidence and stupid perfect ass’”.

Woohyun looks at him blankly for a few seconds and Dongwoo looks mildly disgusted.

“Look, you should be telling this to each other and not me, you know that right,” Dongwoo sighs tiredly. “I know you guys didn’t have the best start but I know you got over that already. Sunggyu is a good guy and when you’re too busy to see, he looks at you like you’ve hung the moon.”

Woohyun feels heat coming up to his cheeks and Dongwoo rolls his eyes. “I thought we might be getting somewhere but after what happened to you, we got side tracked and today, I haven’t even seen him.”

“Oh, I see,” Dongwoo says.

“What do you mean by that?” Woohyun demands.

“You’re hiding here,” Dongwoo says simply.

“I’m not hiding here! I wanted to see him, I was here in the morning to see him.”

“Ha! I thought I saw you!”

“But then he was nowhere to be found and – “

“It’s barely past noon, you idiot, did it occur to you that he might have classes?” Dongwoo points out.

“I know,” Woohyun admits. “But what if I misread something? I mean, I gave him a lot of reasons not to like me and now after giving him shit, what – “

He doesn’t even finish the thought, unsure of what he’s trying to say.

“You’re overthinking this, mate,” Dongwoo says simply. “Talk to him, he likes you.”

“I wouldn’t like me if I were him.”

“I don’t like you,” Dongwoo laughs shortly. “Is that good enough? Now get out of here, I have a visitor coming over.”

“Ah, a visitor?” Woohyun says, wiggling his eyebrows. He tries not to let it show how much he’s glad for the change of subject.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo smiles a bit dreamily. “She was here with me, a mishap during a Potions class, she was already discharged but we talked a lot.”

“Well, I better be getting out of here, right?”

“Don’t you dare hide anywhere; talk to him, alright?”

“Yes!”

-

And Woohyun meant it, he did, only now that he seems to be genuinely looking for Sunggyu, he’s seriously nowhere to be found. He goes back to the Great Hall to see if maybe Sunggyu is having a late lunch, but the Slytherin table is occupied only by students who have total of zero understanding for a Gryffindor snooping around and threaten him with broken bones before the next game.

He tries the library, where he knows Sunggyu spends way too much of his time, but he’s not there either. He tries walking by the entrance to the Slytherin Common room twice before he starts attracting too much attention again and with a resigned huff goes back out of the dungeons.

He walks around aimlessly for about an hour after that before his luck finally changes; he runs into Hoya, who takes a pity on him and tells him Sunggyu should be on the seventh floor right about now. He looks about as done with them as Dongwoo, which probably says a lot.

Woohyun’s stomach ties itself into knots while he slowly drags his feet up the stairs, he starts to work himself into an overdrive, just like Dongwoo predicted. He feels like he should have a freak out before he sees Sunggyu so he doesn’t end up saying something embarrassing or maybe not saying anything at all, but before he knows it, he’s on the seventh floor and sure enough, Sunggyu’s there; his sleeves are rolled up, revealing pale, strong forearms, a book in his hands as he leans against the wall in front of a classroom, obviously waiting for it to clear out. There are student trickling out of the room but Sunggyu pays them no mind, slowly chewing on his lower lip, lost in thought. The sight stops Woohyun in his tracks as something clenches in his chest painfully. He just looks so _collected_ and _nice_ and just so indescribably _fuckable_ that Woohyun wants to cry a little bit.

This is it. They have been working up to this; apparently for months, if what Dongwoo said is true. What Dongwoo says usually winds up being the truth, if Woohyun’s being honest. And if Sunggyu has been interested in him this whole time, a lot of other things would make sense.

He can’t know for sure but damn it, he needs to know; and suddenly he knows what he has to say to Sunggyu, the questions he’s been dying to ask come back to him and he can’t get to Sunggyu quick enough.

The Slytherin lifts his head suddenly, as if he could somehow tell Woohyun was there, and their eyes meet through the busy corridor. It’s like there’s nobody else, just them, for a short second that the time seems to stop. For some reason, Woohyun’s overcome with inexplicable urgency to tell Sunggyu everything right now, like it can’t wait for another five minutes, for another second.

He starts making his way to Sunggyu, who smiles softly, a bit of pink dusting his cheeks. It feels like ages before he’s standing in front of him and he takes all of three seconds to decide if he’s going to speak or just kiss Sunggyu instead.

“Woohyun,” Sunggyu starts and his voice is full of emotion, all the pent-up feelings wrapped up just in the way he whispers his name, and Woohyun knows that he should go for the kiss instead of any kind of stupid talk he would probably fuck up anyway.

As it turns out, the three seconds are more than enough to ruin all of that for him; a loud crashing noise comes from the inside of the classroom they’re standing next to, a high-pitched yell of a girl follows, before more deafening cracks slit through air.

Woohyun knows what’s happening without looking; the furious screaming of curse words is proof enough. Some stupid idiots, Slytherins and Ravenclaws from fifth year, decided to have a fight, just now, when Woohyun was about to have a life changing moment with love confessions and all.

“Fuck,” Sunggyu breathes, because that’s his cue. There are no teachers around, it’s his job to deal with these fuckers.

He gives Woohyun an apologetic smile and turns on his heel, disappearing into the classroom. It doesn’t take more than five seconds for all the noise to die out, but when all the guilty students emerge, there’s at least six of them and Sunggyu is yelling at them, livid, that they’re going to go see the heads of their Houses and he’s going to see to it.

“Sorry,” he mumbles to Woohyun when he passes him.

And just like that, the moment is fucking gone again, together with Sunggyu and Woohyun’s will to live.

“I can’t seem to catch a fucking break.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are almost at the end, thank you all for your patience, I have almost no time to write but I'm loving this au a lot :) It has been pointed out to me that I should make them suffer for a bit longer, hence the ending hehe  
> I plan one more chapter and maaaybe a spicy epilogue.  
> Thanks a lot for support ♥


	5. Chapter 5

In the end, after all the waiting and anxiety, it’s honestly a bit of a let-down.

The next few days, Woohyun spends in constant tension, always on the lookout for Sunggyu, always trying to guess where he might be (with some useful pointers from Hoya and Sungyeol), but it just doesn’t work out. There are teachers wanting to talk to either of them at the most inconvenient times, there are new sudden outbursts of rebellion against the school rules, the bell rings in the worst possible second; a conversation for longer than two seconds just never happens.

Woohyun feels like pulling his hair out and Dongwoo bans him from any more visits, declaring he’s done looking at his miserable, stupid face. Woohyun can’t even blame him; this amount of bad luck seems to be plain unfair to him and his mood could hardly be any worse. Dongwoo, at least, has made a tremendous progress in his recovery, being able to walk around, no longer getting light headed or weak. He’s getting better faster than the nurse originally expected and that’s the only comfort Woohyun can find these days.

To make the whole situation all worse, he feels like he’s the only one truly frustrated here. Sunggyu always manages a rather amused smile before he (or Woohyun) has to inevitably go again. Woohyun himself feels like he’s going to jump out of his skin and ‘amused’ doesn’t come even close to how he feels.  So in the meantime, Woohyun starts overthinking again, inventing all these absurd scenarios in his head and digging around in his memory enough to not be sure who said or did what anymore.

And then that turns out to be the solution; in the end, all that it takes is for him to stop trying so hard.

 

The second he steps out of the safety of the Gryffindor common room, he has to dodge a group of excitedly whispering girls who have been trying to corner him ever since the story about the fox spread through Hogwarts like wildfire. He’s not even sure how these gossips get out, because all four of them who were involved had to promise to shut up about it, so the story wouldn’t encourage younger, even more stupid students into doing something similar. Woohyun is pretty sure that even though Sungyeol has a big mouth, he wouldn’t babble about this, and Myungsoo seems to be too preoccupied with Sungyeol to really care about the outside world to say, talk to anyone else _at all_. Now the tale has grown some legs and puffed up into a rather epic story, which is gradually getting more and more unrealistic and in many cases, for some reason, features Woohyun shirtless.

It’s kind of sad he has to sneak out of the Castle yet again, even though this time for completely different reasons. He’s grown sick of answering all the questions and generally, just being stared at. It’s not like weird shit doesn’t happen in Hogwarts every other day, so this level of attention seems uncalled for and exaggerated. He’s had enough of unwanted attention before all of this happened, now it’s combined with his foul mood and he’s quickly losing his cool. So he heads for the Quidditch field for a late afternoon training, needing the physical exhaustion more than anything. If there is anything that can help him think and calm whatever he’s freaking about, it’s always been flying.

He hurries over the school grounds, feeling restless to finally get off the ground and leave everything behind for a few hours. The weather has improved significantly, as if even the sky was celebrating the danger to the school was dealt with, and even though it’s not really warm, the sun has been up the whole day, just a few clouds swimming around. It’s a good weather for training, even if still a bit chilly and windy.

Once again, Woohyun is more than grateful for how little his team cares about any of his heroic achievements and just takes him for what he really is; just another guy, a dumbass, really. It would hardly work in the field otherwise anyway, and the change of pace is more than soothing after the whole day of stress; the game demands his full attention and getting distracted could actually cost him an injury, so he quickly forgets about what has been bothering him for so long. They spend a couple of hours out there, getting ready for the final match, in spite of how much they’re actually ahead. These things shouldn’t be taken for granted and Woohyun doesn’t want to risk his chances with the national team either; he knows someone comes to watch all of the games to scout for future talents and the last game could ensure or endanger his prospects, no matter how sure they can seem.

That is another thing that has been gnawing on his mind; the end of the year is approaching way faster than he would have thought, the time flying by insanely fast. His school years will be over soon and some big decisions are ahead; never in a million years would he have thought he’d be choosing a sports career and yet, now it seems like the most reasonable and natural choice. He’s been thinking about this a lot; what comes after he gets older, what happens if he gets injured. His parents are of no help in this sense, still kind of confused about what it is Woohyun actually does sometimes and what he wants to do and what he _can_ do. They manage to be supportive without being involved, which Woohyun takes as a win. Even though they have been looking into the world of magic through the window Woohyun has opened for them for years now, it doesn’t really match their lifestyle and there is no reason to force any of this on them.

He’s been getting regular mail from the national team; more information about what being a member would mean, what the requirements are and increasingly more often, all the reasons why Woohyun should accept the job already and not wait till the end of the school year, which was the original plan. Without him saying a word, they even promised to raise his salary significantly compared to what they had agreed on together earlier last year, which made Woohyun laugh till he cried and then he was forced to promise Dongwoo very expensive Christmas gifts for the next ten years.

There are no doubts in his heart that this is what he wants to do, despite all the risks he’d be taking. He even had an academic freak out in his sixth year, when a sensible teaching job or a position at the Ministry started looking like a more mature and most of all the stable choice that he should be making. He has recovered from those thoughts, which now seem like a distant memory. Those are the things he can actually always do, can always come back to; Quidditch is now or never and Woohyun wants it.

The time flies by incredibly quickly when he doesn’t want it to; _especially_ when he wishes it would slow down instead, let him breathe and think. Dongwoo is set up for a highly classified job at the Ministry, his hardly describable talents to invent new things or just _make things work somehow_ are a good enough ticket. It means he’ll be off to London, which would be the same for Woohyun in case everything goes as planned.

And now, there is a new variable in the whole equation, even though Woohyun doesn’t want to give it that kind of weight just yet. Definitely doesn’t want to admit the variable has a name and a very cute smile. He knows that it’s silly to be taking that into consideration at all, they are not even dating for crying out loud, they have barely looked at each other with hint of bedroom eyes, barely brushed past each other. And yet he can’t get it out of his head, how significant all those little moments actually are to him, and that they actually make him look at all his careful plans, that have been set literally for years, differently. There are less than four months left in Hogwarts and then they’re done. Four months are more than enough time for them to grow sick of each other – or maybe they won’t manage to have a conversation in that time either, Woohyun thinks bitterly – but at the same time, Woohyun has always gone for casual in his other relationships and this time around, he wants it to be everything but that. It feels so different than anything else he’s ever had with another person and that’s probably what makes him feel so uneasy and unsure.

He frowns bitterly to himself when he heads to the showers, which are blissfully empty. He let the team off earlier to practice on his own for a bit and now the sky is dark again, the wind a bit stronger than before. He lets the hot water drum against his head and he feels too lazy to even get out, even more when he has to imagine the long way back up to the castle. It’s not the first time he regrets apparating is prohibited on the school grounds; there would be nothing easier than to get himself into his bed in a blink of an eye.

He gives up only when all the steam starts to make him feel dizzy and he gets out, getting dressed slowly. There’s the good kind of ache in his muscles and he knows he’ll sleep like a dead man tonight. He’s still towelling of his hair, walking out to get his things, absently thinking if he should even bother with dinner or just crash.

“I thought you’d never get out of there,” a voice startles him and he lets a frankly unmanly squeak slip out of his mouth.

“Shit, _fuck!_ ” he turns around to scowl at Sunggyu, who’s gasping for air through an uncontrollable fit of laughter. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Oh, come on, calm down, you big baby,” Sunggyu wipes at his eyes theatrically and smiles at him slightly. “Did you really not hear me come in?”

“No!” Woohyun says and points an accusing finger at him. “I was in the showers, if you didn’t notice, and honestly I didn’t expect any one to come in at all.”

“Shouldn’t be that surprising, really,” Sunggyu says, an odd edge to his voice. “We didn’t have much luck meeting the past few days, right?”

“Well, not for lack of trying, at least on my part,” Woohyun walks over to his bag, stuffing the towel into it. He doesn’t know why he’s acting so melodramatic; he almost wants to point out just how absurd what he just said was.

“What do you mean by that?” Sunggyu asks, eyes narrowing. It’s a small mercy he doesn’t mention how unnecessary that comment was.

“I – I don’t know,” Woohyun sighs in the end, resigned. “I seriously don’t know anymore. Everything was clear as day for a few moments and then – nothing happened. And I don’t know.”

Sunggyu just looks at him for a few moments, considering.

“You know,” he says in the end, sitting down at one of the benches. It looks like he has a lot to say and Woohyun does the same as him, sitting down at a bench at the opposite wall. “Even after all we’ve been through, you still don’t give me enough credit.”

He lifts his hand to stop Woohyun from speaking when he opens his mouth to protest.

“And you’re right not to,” he says, laughs shortly, before falling serious again. “I’m sorry, I really am. I guess this is what I’ve been waiting for, for quite some time, actually, and I chickened out. I don’t know why, I’ve – god, this is embarrassing.”

He looks helplessly around, the top of his ears going red. Woohyun can’t help but smile a little bit despite how shitty he feels; Sunggyu is always so full of confidence, which makes him seem all composed and strong, but this confused version of him is equally as appealing. God, he has it bad, he realises.

“It’s funny, I’ve gone over this conversation so many times in my head,” Woohyun says when Sunggyu doesn’t follow up with anything. “And now I don’t know what to say, either. Asking you for a date seems like not enough and I’m not sure what else is on the table here, I don’t know myself what I want.”

“I’d take the date,” Sunggyu says, smiling a bit. “But it’s – it’s weird, isn’t it? I feel like we’re way pass that and yet…”

He trails off and Woohyun can’t help but agree. All the time they spent together, walking miles around the castle, the countless conversations they had about so many topics and issues, their opinions on the stupidest things. Woohyun feels like he knows Sunggyu well, like they’ve been friends for years, because that’s how much they managed to share with each other in a span of a few weeks. But now that he’s looking at him in the dim light of the team room, he realises it’s not entirely true. He didn’t see the time they spent together as dates, never really gave it much thought how weird it was sharing so much of himself with someone he wouldn’t even call a friend.

And that’s exactly what Sunggyu is talking about, Woohyun can see that now. The order in which they took the steps to this messed up relationship is all wrong.

“You know what the irony is?” Sunggyu laughs humourlessly. “Remember when at the start of October, I ran into you outside of the library?”

He laughs when Woohyun’s face instantaneously morphs into a betrayed grimace. The feeling of being wronged when he was given that detention is still there, even though it hardly makes Woohyun angry any more.

“Oh come on,” Sunggyu laughs. “Well, I actually – I don’t know if I wanted to ask you on a date or not that night, I just wanted to talk to you. You were there alone, for once no team mates, no Dongwoo, it was the perfect opportunity. And then, when you were in front of me, I panicked. I didn’t know what to say and yet, I wanted to say something so much. Trust me, giving you that detention was not what I was going for, but suddenly it was out there and you were so angry and I thought about taking it back but I knew I earned myself a week with you at the same time.”

Woohyun’s mouth has long since fallen open and he can’t stop looking at Sunggyu like it’s the first time he sees him.

“Are you kidding me? That’s what it was all about?” He splutters. “So you were literally pulling my piggy tails like in kindergarten!”

There seems to be no remorse in the cheeky grin Sunggyu gives him.

“Got me the attention, didn’t it?” He says.

“Well, _duh_!”

“I never really paid too much attention to you before, you know,” Sunggyu says a bit dreamily. “I wasn’t really interested in anyone much, I honestly don’t know what changed this year. Everybody adores you and yet, you’re still a nice guy who gives tips to the younger kids, you still do so well in classes even though the teachers would let you slide by with much less. I was impressed. And maybe a bit curious, I thought – I might have just wanted to find something bad about you, you know. Jesus, I really didn’t know what I was going for, did I. I wanted to both prove that you’re just another Quidditch player, full of yourself and actually an idiot, and at the same time, I wanted to see if you just might happen to be as awesome as you seemed.”

It’s Woohyun’s turn to blush and he’s pretty sure he has the colour of a beet root, unattractive and ridiculous, unlike Sunggyu who can blush so prettily. He’s never heard such a nice and ambiguous compliment, and something just clenches in his chest painfully at the sincerity with which Sunggyu speaks. He realises he’s not even mad about any of it, he kind of understands now.

“I know I was an asshole to you,” Sunggyu continues with a teasing smile. “And I’m sorry about that. But I know you can take care of yourself; you gave back as much as you got.”

“Damn sure I did,” Woohyun laughs and for a few moments they just look at each other smiling.

Woohyun has been feeling like shit about treating Sunggyu badly for a long time, hating that he was so quick to judge someone. Now he sees that the guilt is not only his, can see it reflected in the way Sunggyu talked, and doesn’t that make them a good pair.

“I thought I’d have the courage to come clean about this sooner,” Sunggyu admits. “You know, I was willing to let so much slip only to have the chance to talk to you alone in the detention, but man, Sungyeol really did try hard that week to piss me off, it’s like he has a seventh sense or something. He probably does, now that I think about it. And then he dragged Myungsoo into his schemes too, of course he did. Those two kids never cease to amaze me, seriously.”

Woohyun can’t help but laugh at that; he imagines Sunggyu trying to look away as Sungyeol orchestrates some kind of masterplan to set fire to the castle or something equally crazy.

“And then – well you know what happened then,” Sunggyu sighs. “It just got out of my hands, you started to hate me, which wasn’t exactly what I was going for, and I mean, for a bit there, I thought I got my answers. It wasn’t really so, though, was it.”

Woohyun knows the rest, they’ve been together for the rest of the story. It all makes much more sense now and Woohyun suddenly realises he’s probably not the only one confused about what’s going on, Sunggyu might be even more.

There’s silence for a while as they just look at each other again.

“I think we really needed this talk,” Woohyun says in the end, finally getting up from the bench.

Sunggyu stands up as well, smiling. They walk to each other, stopping in the middle of the room. Nothing else comes to Woohyun’s mind, what he could possibly say at that moment. Sunggyu doesn’t seem to be expecting anything, which is a relief. He thinks they must look like complete dorks, just staring at each other.

It’s Sunggyu who breaks the silence, chuckling. “You smell nice.”

Woohyun reaches for him, his hand curling around Sunggyu’s waist slowly. He tugs him closer and Sunggyu’s hands go around his middle as well. Woohyun has only a worn t-shirt on while Sunggyu has his coat on, but it somehow just works. They slot together perfectly in a warm hug; Sunggyu’s face presses against Woohyun’s bare neck and a shuddering breath seems to leave his lungs in relief. Woohyun hikes his chin over Sunggyu’s shoulder, his eyes slipping shut and something finally settling deep inside of him.

The hug seems so much more fitting than anything else that could have happened and the tension leaks out of them both. The urgency, that was making Woohyun’s stomach hurt for the past few days, melts away and he realises Sunggyu is not going anywhere, at least not yet.

They stand there for minutes and it feels like less and more at the same time. They’re both pink cheeked when they finally pull away from each other, smiling dumbly at each other.

In the last second, Sunggyu rolls his eyes, probably at himself, and pulls Woohyun back for a quick, soft kiss; it’s barely a press of lips against his, short and sweet, and yet Woohyun feels like the earth moved under his legs.

“Let’s go back to the castle?” He asks quietly.

“Let’s go.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the support, I had a blast writing this story for you! I hope this ending isn't too disappointing, hahaha, I'm actually really happy about how it turned out XD 
> 
> As I promised, there will be an epilogue, hopefully before Christmas! 
> 
> Thanks again for sticking around till the end, even though the updates got slower and slower... I apologize for any mistakes, English is not my first language, and I also apologize for any factual mistakes about the HP world.


End file.
